Colonial Despatches

According to this despatch, and several others, Wellesley captained the HMS Daedalus while it policed the Pacific coast from 1849 to 1853.1

Wellesley, who was the great-nephew of the Duke of Wellesley, joined the Royal Navy in 1828; before he captained the Daedalus he served as lieutenant on several other Royal Navy vessels.2 Wellesley served as commander in chief of the Royal Navy's North American station–in 1869, and again in 1873–before he became first sea lord in W. H. Smith's Board of Admiralty, in 1879.3

Wellesley had a decorated naval career; he was named Knight Commander (KCB) of the Order of Bath, in 1880, and received the rank of Knight Grand Cross (GCB), in 1887.4

Wellesly died in his home in London on 6 April 1901.5

• 1. Andrew Lambert, and L. G. C. Laughton Wellesley, Sir George Greville Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Ibid.