Richard Wilson Pelly

Richard Wilson Pelly (1814-1890), R.N., Chairman of the London Steam Boat Co

1851 Married to Katherine Jane Fry

1875 Bio note. 'In Captain Pelly the London Steam-Boat Company has not only a genial gentleman, but a naval officer of much experience, chairman. Captain Richard Wilson Pelly is the fifth son of Sir John Henry Pelly, of Upton, Essex. Born on Nov. 1, 1814, Richard Pelly entered the Navy in 1828, and obtained his first commission in 1886, when he was appointed a Lieutenant on the Winchester, 52, the flagship of Sir Thomas Bladen Capel, and served in the East Indies. Serving subsequently on board the Victor and the Andromache, Lieutenant Pelly rapidly rose in his profession. We learn from Byrne’s Naval Biographies that he was advanced to the rank of Captain in the year 1844. As Captain of the Rose, in the Gulf of Florida Captain Pelly had the good fortune to settle a formidable rebellion without striking blow, in the Islands of Magdalene; and, when senior officer of the blockade of Vera Cruz, on the outbreak of the war between Mexico and the United States, he made such important arrangements with the contending parties as to secure for the Royal mail-steamers advantages not usual in cases of blockade. For his able and judicious conduct he obtained the high approbation of his commander-in-chief, Sir William Francis Austen, of the Board of Admiralty, and received very flattering testimonials from the merchants and the British Minister Mexico. At a period, too, when hostilities were daily expected take place between Great Britain and the United States, he contrived, by an admirable stroke of diplomacy (although three frigates, two large steamers, four corvettes, and several smaller vessels belonging to the latter Power were...'

1890 Died.

1901 Death of his wife

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