Description

Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Richardson was a Royal Navy officer of the 18th and 19th centuries. His naval career began when he joined HMS Vestal as a captain's servant in 1787. In Vestal he made an aborted journey to China before serving on the East Indies Station where he transferred to HMS Phoenix and fought in the Battle of Tellicherry and the Third Anglo-Mysore War in 1791 and 1792. Having returned to England as a master's mate, Richardson fought at the Glorious First of June on HMS Royal George in 1794 before being promoted to lieutenant in HMS Circe. In 1797, he successfully combated the Nore mutiny in Circe before fighting in the Battle of Camperdown where he personally captured the Dutch admiral Jan Willem de Winter. Afterwards he became flag lieutenant to Admiral Adam Duncan and fought at the Battle of Callantsoog and the Vlieter Incident in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland of 1799. He then sailed to Egypt in HMS Kent where he again went onshore, fighting in the battles of Abukir, Mandora, and Alexandria in 1801.