{{Short description|Royal Navy Admiral (1793–1879)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Admiral |name = Sir Joseph Nias |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB}} |image = Sir-Joseph-Nias.jpg |image_size = |caption = |birth_date = 2 April 1793 |birth_place = London |death_date = {{death date and age|1879|12|17|1793|4|2|df=y}} |death_place = London |burial_place = Marylebone cemetery, East Finchley, London<ref name="ODT19370109.2.106">{{cite news |last=Ramsden |first=Eric |title=Romantic Quest |work=The Otago Daily Times |issue=23084 |date=9 January 1937 |page=14 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19370109.2.106}}</ref> |allegiance = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom |branch = 23px Royal Navy |branch_label = Branch |service_years = 1807– |service_years_label = Service&nbsp;years |rank = Admiral |unit = HMS ''Nautilus''<br />HMS ''Comus''<br />HMS ''Nymphen'', 1814–<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Ramillies'', 1815<ref name="ADM 196/37/319">{{citation |title=ADM 196/37/319: Nias, Joseph Rank: Admiral Date of Appointment: 05 June 1850 |date=1850 |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7599599 |via=National Archives, Kew}}</ref><br />HMS ''Malta'', 1815–<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Rivoli'', 1816–<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Vengeur'', 1817–<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Queen Charlotte''<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />''Alexander'', 1818–<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Hecla'', 1819–20<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Fury'', 1821–23<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Asia'', 1826–<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Alacrity'', 1827–30<ref name="ODT19370109.2.106"/><ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Herald'', 1838–43<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Agincourt'', 1850<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''St George'', 1850–53<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/> |commands = HMS ''Alacrity'', 1827–30<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''Herald'', 1838–43<ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/><br />HMS ''St George'', 1850–53<ref name="Davis"/><ref name="ADM 196/37/319"/> |unit_label = Served&nbsp;on |battles = First Opium War |awards = Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, 1867<br />Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, 1841<ref name="Davis">{{cite web |last=Davis |first=P |title=Joseph Nias R.N. |website=The Victorian Royal Navy |url=https://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=257 |access-date=1 October 2024}}</ref><br />China War Medal (1842)<br />Naval General Service Medal (1847) with clasp<br />Arctic Medal (1857)<ref>{{cite news |title=Notice: Naval Medals for the Arctic Expeditions |work=The London Gazette |issue=21998 |date=8 May 1857 |pages=1625–1626 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/21998/page/1626}}</ref> |spouse = {{marriage|Caroline Isabella Laing|1855|}} |children = 5 |relations = |other_work = }} '''Sir Joseph Nias''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB}} (2 April 1793 – 17 December 1879) was a British Royal Navy admiral.

==Biography== Nias was third son of Joseph Nias, ship insurance broker. He was born in London on 2 April 1793. He entered the navy in 1807, on board the sloop HMS ''Nautilus'', under the command of Captain Matthew Smith, with whom he continued in HM frigates ''Comus'' and ''Nymphen'', on the Lisbon, Mediterranean, North Sea, and Channel stations till August 1815. During the last few weeks of the ''Nymphen'''s commission, Nias, in command of one of her boats, was employed in rowing guard round HMS ''Bellerophon'' in Plymouth Sound, keeping off the sightseers who thronged to catch a glimpse of Napoleon. He continued in active service after the peace, and in January 1818 was appointed to the brig ''Alexander'', with Lieutenant William Edward Parry, for an expedition to the Arctic under the command of Sir John Ross. In February 1819 he was again with Parry in HMS ''Hecla'', returning to the Thames in November 1820, and on 26 December he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In January 1821 he was again appointed to the ''Hecla'' with Parry, and sailed for the Arctic in May. After two winters in the ice the ''Hecla'' returned to England in November 1823. In 1826 Nias went out to the Mediterranean as first lieutenant of HMS ''Asia'', carrying the flag of Sir Edward Codrington, and, after the battle of Navarino, was promoted to be commander on 11 November 1827, and appointed to the brig HMS ''Alacrity'', in which he saw some sharp service against the Greek pirates who at that time infested the Archipelago, and especially on 11 January 1829, in cutting out one commanded by a noted ruffian named Georgios, who was sent to Malta and duly hanged. The ''Alacrity'' was paid off in 1830.<ref name="ODT19370109.2.106"/>

Nias was advanced to post rank on 8 July 1835, and in May 1838 commissioned HMS ''Herald'', frigate, for the East Indies, a station which at that time included Australia, China, and the Western Pacific. In February 1840, when Captain William Hobson of the navy was ordered to take possession of New Zealand in the name of the Queen, he went from Sydney as a passenger in the ''Herald'', and was assisted by Nias in the formal proceedings<ref>{{cite book |title=Correspondence Relative to New Zealand, Parl. Papers |date=1841 |volume=17}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bunbury |first=Thomas |title=Reminiscences of a Veteran: Being Personal and Military Adventures in Portugal, Spain, France, Malta New South Wales, Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Andaman Islands, and India |volume=3 |publisher=Charles J. Skeet |location=London |date=1861 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.73194/page/n3/mode/2up}}</ref>

During the first Chinese war Nias was actively employed in the operations leading to the capture of Canton, and on 29 June 1841 he was nominated a C.B. The ''Herald'' returned to England in 1843, when Nias was placed on half pay. In June 1850 he commissioned to HMS ''Agincourt'', from which in August he was moved to HMS ''St George'', as flag-captain to Commodore Seymour, then superintendent of the dockyard at Devonport, and as captain of the ordinary. In 1852 Captain James Scott of the navy, in conversation with a friend at the United Service Club, made some reflections on Nias's conduct in China. Though duelling was then not quite extinct, the feeling of the navy was strongly opposed to it, and Nias took the then unusual practice of bringing an action against Scott, who, after the evidence of Sir Thomas Herbert and others, withdrew the imputation, and under pressure from the lord chief justice expressed his regret, on which the plaintiff accepted a verdict of 40s. and costs.<ref>{{cite news |title=Court of Common Pleas, Westminster, June 21 |work=The Times |issue=21148 |date=22 June 1852 |page=8 |url=}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=A cause, which was tried the day before yesterday in the Court of Common Pleas... |work=The Times |issue=21149 |date=23 June 1852 |page=5 |url=}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= |work=Morning Chronicle |date=24 June 1852 |url=}}</ref>

Nias commanded the ordinary at Devonport for the usual term of three years, and from 1854 to 1856 was superintendent of the victualling yard and hospital at Plymouth. He had no further service, but was made Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 14 February 1857,<ref>{{cite news |title=Admiralty, 14th February, 1857 |work=The London Gazette |issue=21968 |date=17 February 1857 |page=539 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/21968/page/539}}</ref> Rear-Admiral of the White,<ref>{{cite news |title=Admiralty, 11th February, 1858 |work=The London Gazette |issue=22096 |date=12 February 1858 |page=722 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/22096/page/722}}</ref> Rear-Admiral of the Red on 21 January 1862,<ref>{{cite news |title=Admiralty, 21st January, 1862 |work=The London Gazette |issue=22591 |date=21 January 1862 |page=335 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/22591/page/335}}</ref> Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 12 September 1863,<ref>{{cite news |title=Admiralty, 18th September, 1863 |work=The London Gazette |issue=22772 |page=4561 |date=18 September 1863 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/22772/page/4561}}</ref> K.C.B. on 13 March 1867,<ref>{{cite news |title=War Office, March 13, 1867 |work=The London Gazette |issue=23230 |date=15 March 1867 |page=1724 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23230/page/1724}}</ref> and Admiral on 18 October 1867.<ref>{{cite news |title=Admiralty, October 25, 1867 |work=The London Gazette |issue=23315 |date=25 October 1867 |page=5666 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23315/page/5666}}</ref> After his retirement from active service he resided for the most part at Surbiton, but in 1877 moved to London, where he died on 17 December 1879. He was buried in the Marylebone cemetery at East Finchley. He had married Caroline Isabella, only daughter of John Laing, in 1855, and left issue of two sons and three daughters.

==References== {{reflist}} {{DNB|wstitle=Nias, Joseph|first=John Knox|last=Laughton|authorlink=John Knox Laughton|volume=40}}

==External links== *{{commonscatinline}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nias, Joseph}} Category:1793 births Category:1879 deaths Category:Military personnel from London Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel Category:19th-century New Zealand military personnel Category:Signatories of the Treaty of Waitangi Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Burials at East Finchley Cemetery