# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Syer, Dey Richard

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​SYER. (Lieutenant, 1809. f-p., 13; h-p., 31.)
Dey Richard Syer, born 17 Oct. 1788, in co. Suffolk, is third son of the Rev. Barrington Blomfield Syer, by Mary, eldest daughter of John Moore, Esq., of Kentwell Hall, Melford.
This officer entered the Navy, 29 June, 1803 (under the protection of the late Vice-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres), as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Prince 98, Capt. Rich. Grindall. In that ship, of which he was nominated Midshipman in Jan. 1804, he was for some time employed in the blockade of Brest, and then off Cadiz. After sharing in the battle of Trafalgar he removed, in Nov. 1805, to the Tigre 74, Capt. Benj. Hallowell; under whom we find him participating in a variety of detached services, and, in 1807, accompanying the expedition to Egypt. While there he assisted in landing the troops, commanded the launch in an attack upon some of the enemy’s forts, and had charge of a gun-boat on Lake Mareotis. He was also sent on a cruize off Rosetta under Lieut. Bucknor, in a Turkish corvette, of which, when previously captured in the inner harbour of Alexandria, he had been placed in command. Having returned to England and been refitted, the Tigre was next, for a short time, stationed off the Texel; where Mr. Syer was employed under the Master in surveying the different shoals. On again proceeding to the Mediterranean he united, in Oct. 1809, in the pursuit which led to the self-destruction of the ships-of-the-line Robuste and Lion; and on the night of 31 of that month he served with the boats of a squadron under Lieut. John Tailour at the capture and destruction, after a desperate struggle and a loss to the British of 15 men killed and 55 wounded, of the French armed store-ship Lamproie of 16 guns and 116 men, bombards Victoire and Grondeur and armed xebec Normande with a convoy of seven merchantmen, defended by numerous strong batteries, in the Bay of Rosas. In this affair Mr. Syer, one of those who boarded the Lamproie, was severely wounded in the head and cut down on the quarter-deck of that vessel. He was immediately, however, promoted by Lord Collingwood to a death vacancy, 2 Nov. 1809, in the Volontaire 38, Capts. Chas. Bullen, Joseph Nourse, and Hon. Granville Geo. Waldegrave. In May, 1810, he was again severely wounded by a musket-ball in the right leg at the cutting out of some merchant-vessels and privateers under the batteries of Pomegue, near Marseilles. On 31 March, 1813, while a party of seamen and marines were engaged on shore under Lieut. Isaac Shaw in effecting the capture of two strong batteries, Mr. Syer, in command of the boats of the Volontaire, Undaunted 38, and Redwing sloop, brought out from the harbour of Morjean (although opposed besides by two field-pieces), 11 vessels, tartans and settees, laden with oil, and destroyed three others. In addition to many other boat affairs we find him on one occasion, after having been for six nights secreted among the rocks of Cape Creux, assisting Lieut. Shaw in capturing a large French armed xebec. He appears, on the fall of Tarragona in June, 1811, to have been active in rescuing the inhabitants from the fury of the French troops; and, on 22 Nov. in the same year, to have been in company with the Perlen 38 when she and the ​Volontaire succeeded, after a long running fight, in escaping from three French ships-of-the-line and two frigates belonging to the Toulon fleet. In 1814 the Volontaire brought a number of French prisoners from Pampeluna to England; and she was subsequently, until paid off in Dec. 1815, employed on the north coast of Spain, along the Italian shores, and off Marseilles. Since the latter date Lieut. Syer, who had not been more than two months on shore from the time of his entering the Navy, has been on half-pay. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.
* ↑ Through a heavy surf to the eastward of Marabout.
* ↑ At the moment the enemy fired their ships, which had been run on shore near Cape Cette, Mr. Syer was in the boats sounding for a channel by which they might be approached.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1903.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 1148.