{{Short description|British Royal Navy officer (1784–1844)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Admiral |name= Thomas Huskisson |birth_date=1784 |death_date= 1844 |birth_place= Eastry, Kent |death_place= Upper Deal, Kent |allegiance= {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom |service_years= 1780s to 1819 |rank= Royal Navy Admiral |branch= 22px Royal Navy |commands= {{HMS|Pelorus|1808|2}}<br/>{{HMS|Garland|1807|2}}<br/>{{HMS|Euryalus|1803|2}}<br/>Leeward Islands Station |unit= |battles= French Revolutionary Wars<br/>• Battle of Groix<br/>• Capture of Trinidad<br/>Napoleonic Wars<br/>• Battle of Cape Finisterre |awards= Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |other_work= }}
'''Thomas Huskisson''' (1784–1844) was an officer in the Royal Navy. Thomas Huskisson was half-brother of William Huskisson, the British politician.
==Naval career== Huskisson joined the Royal Navy in 1800 and saw action at the Battle of Trafalgar on {{HMS|Defence|1763|6}} in 1805.<ref name=nbd>{{cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=Huskisson, Thomas |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=John Murray}}</ref> In early 1808 Lieutenant Huskisson commissioned the schooner {{HMS|Fleur de la Mer|1807|2}}.<ref name=nbd/> He had come out to the Jamaica station on {{HMS|Melpomene|1794|2}}, and once there Vice-Admiral Sir B. S. Rowley appointed him to ''Fleur de la Mer'' and put him to cruising off San Domingo. There he rescued a gentleman who had fallen afoul of Henri Christophe. Huskisson also visited Cartagena, where he was able to intercede and win the release of seven persons who had accompanied General Miranda's British-supported and unsuccessful attempted invasion of the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1806.<ref name=Marshall>{{cite RNB1823 |wstitle=Huskisson, Thomas |volume=sup |part=2 |page=340}}</ref>
Huskisson was promoted to commander on 19 January 1809, but did not find out about his promotion until May, at which time he transferred to command the {{sclass|Cruizer|brig-sloop}} {{HMS|Pelorus|1808|2}}.<ref name=Marshall/> On 16 October, ''Pelorus'' and {{HMS|Hazard|1794|2}} discovered a privateer schooner moored under the St Mary battery. Fire from ''Hazard'' and ''Pelorus'' destroyed the battery while boats from both ships boarded the privateer. Her crew had abandoned the vessel but fired from the shore where two field pieces joined them.<ref name=LG16339/> Unable to move the prize, the British blew her up.<ref name=LG16339/> The privateer was armed with one long 18-pounder on a pivot carriage and two swivels; the British estimated that she had had a crew of 80-100 men.<ref name=LG16339>{{London Gazette|issue=16339|date=3 February 1810|pages=174–175}}</ref> The action cost the British 15 men dead and wounded, with ''Pelorus'' accounting for two dead and six wounded, one mortally.<ref name=LG16339/> In February 1810 ''Pelorus'' participated in the capture of Guadeloupe.<ref name=nbd/>
Huskisson was promoted captain in 1811 and took command of the 22-gun {{sclass|Laurel|post ship}} {{HMS|Garland|1807|2}}.<ref name=nbd/>
In June 1815 Huskisson recommissioned the frigate {{HMS|Euryalus|1803|2}}. On 7 July she captured the French vessels ''Aimable Antoinette'' and ''Marie''. From 25 August 1818 to end 1820, ''Euryalus'' was in the West Indies. She served as the flagship in the Leeward Islands from November 1819 when Huskisson was promoted to Commodore and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands Station: Huskisson continued in this role until May 1820.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Haydn|first1=Joseph|title=The Book of Dignities: Containing Lists of the Official Personages of the British Empire ... from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time ... Together with the Sovereigns and Rulers of Europe, from the Foundation of Their Respective States; the Peerage of England and Great Britain Original 1851 Digitized by the University of Michigan|date=13 June 2008|publisher=Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans|page=279|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aURnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Admiral+William+O%27Bryen+Drury%22&pg=PA272}}</ref>
Huskisson became Paymaster of the Navy in 1827 and was admitted to Greenwich Hospital in 1830.<ref name=nbd/>
==Works== *His memoirs were published as ''Eyewitness to Trafalgar'' edited by David Beaumont Ellison. (Ellisons Editions 1984 - place of publication unknown). {{ISBN|0-946092-09-5}}.
==Family history== Thomas' half-brother was William Huskisson MP, who married Emily Milbanke, the youngest daughter of Admiral Mark Milbanke, the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. Admiral Milbanke assisted his entry into the Navy.<ref name=nbd/>
His brother John Huskisson was commissioned in 1798 into the Army and served with the 51st Regiment in Ceylon, while his other brother George Huskisson was commissioned in the Royal Marines.<ref name=nbd/>
In 1813 Thomas Huskisson married Elizabeth Wedge (1788–1873), daughter of Francis Wedge of Forton, Staffordshire, and had 6 children, including William Milbanke Huskisson, of the Foreign Office and John Huskisson, a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Marines.<ref name=nbd/>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef | before=Donald Campbell}} {{s-ttl | title=Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands Station | years=1819–1820}} {{s-aft | after=William Fahie}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huskisson, Thomas}} Category:1784 births Category:1844 deaths Category:Royal Navy admirals