27 Facts About Roger Curtis

Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, 1st Baronet, GCB was a Royal Navy officer who enjoyed an extensive career which was punctuated by a number of highly controversial incidents.

Roger Curtis's popularity fell further due to his involvement in two highly controversial courts-martial, those of Anthony Molloy in 1795 and James Gambier in 1810.

Ultimately Roger Curtis' career stalled as more popular and successful officers secured active positions; during the Napoleonic Wars, Roger Curtis was relegated to staff duties ashore and did not see action.

Roger Curtis died in 1816, his baronetcy inherited by his second son Lucius who later became an Admiral of the Fleet.

Roger Curtis was born in 1746 to a gentleman farmer of Wiltshire, named Roger Curtis, and his wife Christabella Blachford.

In 1762 at 16, Roger Curtis travelled to Portsmouth and joined the Royal Navy, becoming a midshipman aboard HMS Royal Sovereign in the final year of the Seven Years' War.

Roger Curtis did not see any action before the Treaty of Paris in 1763, and was transferred aboard HMS Assistance for service off West Africa.

In 1769, Roger Curtis joined the frigate HMS Venus under Samuel Barrington before moving to the ship of the line HMS Albion in which he was promoted to lieutenant.

Shortly after his promotion, Roger Curtis joined the small brig HMS Otter in Newfoundland and there spent several years operating off the Labrador coastline, becoming very familiar with the local geography and the Inuit peoples of the region.

Roger Curtis formed a good opinion of the native people, applauding their healthy and peaceful lifestyle.

Roger Curtis made numerous exploratory voyages along the Labrador coast and formed close links with the Inuit tribes and Moravian missionaries in the region.

Roger Curtis performed well in his new command and a year later was again promoted after being noticed by Lord Howe.

In 1778, Roger Curtis returned to Britain in Eagle, but refused to carry out an order to sail the ship to the Far East, a refusal which earned the enmity of Lord Sandwich.

Brilliant was paid off in 1784, although Roger Curtis remained in employment during the peace, commanding HMS Ganges as guardship at Portsmouth.

Roger Curtis was successful in controlling the disease and later published and advisory pamphlet on techniques for other officers to follow when faced with contagion aboard their ships.

In 1793 at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Roger Curtis returned to Queen Charlotte and joined Lord Howe at the head of the Channel Fleet.

The action was hard-fought and Roger Curtis' ship was heavily engaged, fighting several French ships of the line simultaneously.

Exactly how much of what transpired was Roger Curtis's fault has never been established, but in a series of unusual decisions the British failed to pursue the defeated French fleet, allowing many battered French ships to escape.

Roger Curtis stood as prosecutor in the case, and Molloy was dismissed from his ship and effectively from the service as the result of Roger Curtis's prosecution.

In Prince, Roger Curtis led the blockade of Brest when most of the fleet was paralysed by the Spithead Mutiny.

Roger Curtis was in overall command of the naval operations which succeeded in destroying or driving off much of the French force sent to support the Irish Rebellion of 1798 culminating in the Battle of Tory Island, at which he was not present.

Roger Curtis's remaining career was based at a series of shore stations, initially as commander-in-chief Cape of Good Hope Station at Cape Town between 1800 and 1803, which he reportedly hated.

In 1809, after 40 years of naval service, Roger Curtis took his final command, that of Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

Roger Curtis retired after the trial and died six years later after a peaceful retirement on 14 November 1816 at his residence Gatscombe House, followed a year later by his wife.

The Roger Curtis family owned a farm in Catherington, Hampshire, the buildings of which was uncovered during land clearance in 2021.

On his death, his son, Lucius Roger Curtis, inherited the baronetcy.

Roger Curtis was however, brave and resourceful; his actions at Gibraltar even prompted the naming of the Curtis Group, an archipelago of small islands in the Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania: The islands were apparently given the name because of their physical similarity to Gibraltar.