Henry Lambert
Officer of the British Royal Navy
title: "Henry Lambert" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1813-deaths", "people-killed-in-1813", "royal-navy-captains", "british-military-personnel-killed-in-the-war-of-1812", "royal-navy-personnel-of-the-french-revolutionary-wars", "royal-navy-personnel-of-the-napoleonic-wars", "year-of-birth-unknown"] description: "Officer of the British Royal Navy" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lambert" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Officer of the British Royal Navy ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox military person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| honorific_prefix | Captain |
| name | Henry Lambert |
| death_date | 4 January 1813 |
| death_place | Salvador, Brazil |
| allegiance | United Kingdom United Kingdom |
| rank | Captain |
| branch | [[Image:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |
| :: |
|honorific_prefix = Captain |name= Henry Lambert |birth_date= |death_date=4 January 1813 |birth_place= |death_place= Salvador, Brazil |image= |caption= |nickname= |allegiance= United Kingdom United Kingdom |serviceyears= |rank= Captain |branch= [[Image:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg|22px]] Royal Navy |commands= |unit= |battles=
- French Revolutionary Wars
- Napoleonic Wars
- Capture of
- Battle of Grand Port
- War of 1812
- Defeat by |awards= |laterwork=
Career
Lambert was the son of naval Captain Robert Lambert and entered the navy at an early age aboard in 1795. Serving in the Mediterranean, Cumberland was heavily engaged at the Battle of Hyères where the French ship of the line was blown up. For the next six years, Lambert served in the Mediterranean on board the frigate HMS Virginie and the ship of the line before obtaining promotion to lieutenant in 1801. He later joined and the following year during the Peace of Amiens.
At the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, Lambert was promoted to be commander of the 20-gun . In April 1804 he fought off the 36-gun French privateer on the East India Station. The following year he became a post captain in command of the 44-gun frigate HMS San Fiorenzo. As captain of San Fiorenzo, in February 1805 he encountered the Psyché again, now a frigate of the French Navy. This time Lambert captured her. He then sailed San Fiorenzo back to Britain in June.
In 1808 Lambert took command of the frigate , initially based at Quebec, but later transferring back to the Indian Ocean where he had previously been successful. Attached to the squadron then besieging Île Bonaparte and Île de France under Josias Rowley, in July 1810 Lambert participated in the successful invasion of Île Bonaparte. The following month, Lambert was part of a frigate squadron led by Samuel Pym which attempted to raid the anchorage of Grand Port on Île de France. Due to poor charts of the numerous reefs within the harbour, the attack was a disaster, with two frigates destroyed and two more, including Iphigenia severely damaged and captured. Lambert and his crew were released from captivity following the successful invasion of Île de France and honourably acquitted in the court martial inquiring into the loss of their ship, which had also been recaptured.
In 1812, Lambert was given command of , originally a French frigate captured during the Mauritius campaign. On 29 December, Java engaged the larger American frigate which captured Java in a bitter battle, Lambert opting to engage the American ship rather than flee in the hope of inflicting such damage that Constitution would be forced to retire to the US for repairs. In the event, Java was captured and destroyed and Lambert mortally wounded by a musket ball in the chest. Despite the efforts of the American surgeon aboard Constitution, Lambert died on 4 January 1813 in Salvador, Brazil from the effects of his wounds and was buried the following day.
Literature
Henry Lambert is a character in Fortune of War, which is the sixth novel in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series. In the book, he is mortally wounded in combat aboard HMS Java, just as in real life. He was also named in the fourth novel, The Mauritius Command, as captain of the Iphigenia, as in real life. Oddly, when Aubrey meets him in Fortune of War there is no reference to their service together two years earlier.
Family
He was the son of Captain Robert Lambert RN, younger brother of Rear Admiral Robert Lambert RN, General Sir John Lambert, Major General Samuel Lambert and older brother of Admiral Sir George Lambert RN.
Notes
References
- {{Cite ODNB | title = Lambert, Henry | year = 2004 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/15935 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15935 | accessdate = 2008-11-15 }}
References
- [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15935 Lambert, Henry], ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', [[John Knox Laughton. J. K. Laughton]], (subscription required), Retrieved 15 November 2008
- "British Generals of the Napoleonic Wars 1793–1815".
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