My Ancestor, a Hero at Trafalgar
[Copyright Jane Larsen, 2005. This article may not be reprinted or distributed without permission. First published at http://www.pulfordmedia.co.uk/i_pages/i_features/trafalgar.htm ]
Her ancestor lay wounded alongside Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. He was in action a hundred times against the French and the Americans, and lived to be 90. JANE LARSEN finds out more about the charmed life of George Augustus Westphal.
THIS YEAR’S commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar had added interest for me because there was on board the VICTORY another hero, Midshipman George Augustus Westphal, who was connected to my family.
Westphal, who became an admiral and lived to a great age, was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. His father, an officer retired on half pay, had settled there at the close of the American Revolutionary War.
George Westphal was of German extraction, a descendant of the ancient Counts Westphal of Westphalia. He was the grandson of a judge of the Imperial Courts of Justice and a great-nephew of a dignitary of the Hanoverian church who was also preceptor to the Duke of Kent. It was under the duke’s patronage that George entered the Royal Navy as a 13-year-old first class volunteer on board the 24-Gun sixth rate ship, PORCUPINE.
The duke also sponsored his elder brother, Philip Westphal. He too entered the Royal Navy and became an admiral.
A story recounted over the years by family members was that at the Battle of Trafalgar George was seriously wounded in the head. He was laid beside Lord Nelson whose coat was rolled up and used as a pillow. When the bleeding stopped, the coat had to be cut off him and George kept the congealed fragments.
When Prince Albert bought Nelson’s coat for the Greenwich Museum George Westphal was able to authenticate it with the missing pieces. His own account of the episode was published in the United Service Magazine in 1842, 37 years after the battle.
“When I was carried down wounded [George wrote], I was placed by the side of his lordship; and his coat was rolled up and put as the substitute for a pillow under my head, which was then bleeding very much from the wound I had received. When the battle was over, and an attempt was made to remove the coat, several of the bullions of the epaulet were found to be so firmly glued, unto my hair, by the coagulated blood from my wound, that the bullions four or five of them, were cut off and left in my hair; one of which I still have in my possession.”
Nelson’s coat may be seen at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, where the “Nelson & Napoleon” exhibition is open until November 13, 2005.
Two weeks after Trafalgar Westphal was made a master’s mate and the next year he was promoted to lieutenant.
Of all those who survived Trafalgar, Westphal’s career is the most remarkable. During the Napoleonic wars, he was in action a hundred times. So well and bravely did he conduct himself in varying circumstances that he was deemed worthy of official notice in the Gazette four times and decorated with two medals. He was the last surviving officer of the VICTORY at Trafalgar.
According to records held at the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth he was also involved in many other escapades and adventures. Two of these are recounted below:
In 1807 while being invalided home in the MS HIGHLANDER, he was again badly wounded and captured by the French privateer, L’ALERT. He was taken to Guadeloupe and put in a prison ship from which he escaped in a boat with three others. They were picked up by an American merchant schooner bound for New York. The next day this vessel was detained by an English privateer, which landed Westphal at Antigua where he obtained a passage home on the frigate, VENUS.
In 1813, there was a further adventure (during the war of 1812-15 against the Americans) in which Westphal distinguished himself. In a rocket boat, he led an expedition against the town of Havre-de-Grace at the entrance to the Susquehanna River at the head of Chesapeake Bay. He landed with his boat’s crew and turned the guns upon the American militia, sending them scampering into the woods. A battery, a valuable cannon foundry and several houses were destroyed.
Westphal, having dismounted an American officer, set off on the captured horse in pursuit of the fugitives, forgetting in his ardour that it was not possible for his men to keep up. Finding himself surrounded by the enemy, he fired his pistol to right and left, slashed his sword in all directions and made his escape through the middle of his adversaries. Although he was shot in the hand, he managed to take with him as a prisoner a US militia captain.
As a result of Westphal’s amazing adventures the Admiralty finally recognised his achievements and he was eventually promoted to admiral and knighted. In 1846, he was appointed a naval aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria.
George Augustus Westphal lived until he was 90. He retired to Hove in Sussex and his tomb is in the parish church.
Her ancestor lay wounded alongside Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. He was in action a hundred times against the French and the Americans, and lived to be 90. JANE LARSEN finds out more about the charmed life of George Augustus Westphal.
THIS YEAR’S commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar had added interest for me because there was on board the VICTORY another hero, Midshipman George Augustus Westphal, who was connected to my family.
Westphal, who became an admiral and lived to a great age, was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. His father, an officer retired on half pay, had settled there at the close of the American Revolutionary War.
George Westphal was of German extraction, a descendant of the ancient Counts Westphal of Westphalia. He was the grandson of a judge of the Imperial Courts of Justice and a great-nephew of a dignitary of the Hanoverian church who was also preceptor to the Duke of Kent. It was under the duke’s patronage that George entered the Royal Navy as a 13-year-old first class volunteer on board the 24-Gun sixth rate ship, PORCUPINE.
The duke also sponsored his elder brother, Philip Westphal. He too entered the Royal Navy and became an admiral.
A story recounted over the years by family members was that at the Battle of Trafalgar George was seriously wounded in the head. He was laid beside Lord Nelson whose coat was rolled up and used as a pillow. When the bleeding stopped, the coat had to be cut off him and George kept the congealed fragments.
When Prince Albert bought Nelson’s coat for the Greenwich Museum George Westphal was able to authenticate it with the missing pieces. His own account of the episode was published in the United Service Magazine in 1842, 37 years after the battle.
“When I was carried down wounded [George wrote], I was placed by the side of his lordship; and his coat was rolled up and put as the substitute for a pillow under my head, which was then bleeding very much from the wound I had received. When the battle was over, and an attempt was made to remove the coat, several of the bullions of the epaulet were found to be so firmly glued, unto my hair, by the coagulated blood from my wound, that the bullions four or five of them, were cut off and left in my hair; one of which I still have in my possession.”
Nelson’s coat may be seen at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, where the “Nelson & Napoleon” exhibition is open until November 13, 2005.
Two weeks after Trafalgar Westphal was made a master’s mate and the next year he was promoted to lieutenant.
Of all those who survived Trafalgar, Westphal’s career is the most remarkable. During the Napoleonic wars, he was in action a hundred times. So well and bravely did he conduct himself in varying circumstances that he was deemed worthy of official notice in the Gazette four times and decorated with two medals. He was the last surviving officer of the VICTORY at Trafalgar.
According to records held at the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth he was also involved in many other escapades and adventures. Two of these are recounted below:
In 1807 while being invalided home in the MS HIGHLANDER, he was again badly wounded and captured by the French privateer, L’ALERT. He was taken to Guadeloupe and put in a prison ship from which he escaped in a boat with three others. They were picked up by an American merchant schooner bound for New York. The next day this vessel was detained by an English privateer, which landed Westphal at Antigua where he obtained a passage home on the frigate, VENUS.
In 1813, there was a further adventure (during the war of 1812-15 against the Americans) in which Westphal distinguished himself. In a rocket boat, he led an expedition against the town of Havre-de-Grace at the entrance to the Susquehanna River at the head of Chesapeake Bay. He landed with his boat’s crew and turned the guns upon the American militia, sending them scampering into the woods. A battery, a valuable cannon foundry and several houses were destroyed.
Westphal, having dismounted an American officer, set off on the captured horse in pursuit of the fugitives, forgetting in his ardour that it was not possible for his men to keep up. Finding himself surrounded by the enemy, he fired his pistol to right and left, slashed his sword in all directions and made his escape through the middle of his adversaries. Although he was shot in the hand, he managed to take with him as a prisoner a US militia captain.
As a result of Westphal’s amazing adventures the Admiralty finally recognised his achievements and he was eventually promoted to admiral and knighted. In 1846, he was appointed a naval aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria.
George Augustus Westphal lived until he was 90. He retired to Hove in Sussex and his tomb is in the parish church.