# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Durham, Philip Charles Calderwood Henderson

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​DURHAM, G.C.B., G.C.M.F. (Admiral of the Red, 1830. f-p., 38; h-p., 30.)
Sir Philip Charles Calderwood Henderson Durham was born in 1763, and died, at Naples, 2 April, 1845. He was second son of Jas. Durham, Esq., of Largo, co. Fife, and of Polton, co. Midlothian (a lineal descendant of Sir Wm. Durham, a personage of rank and high distinction in the reign of Robert Bruce), by Anne, daughter of Thos. Calderwood, Esq., of Polton. His elder brother, Lieut.-General Jas. Durham, whom he succeeded in the estates of Largo, died 6 Feb. 1840.
This officer entered the Navy, in July, 1777, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Trident 64, Capt. John Elliott, and, after conveying to their destination the British Commissioners appointed to negociate with America, served, as Midshipman, in the boats, at the evacuation of Philadelphia, and was present in a skirmish between Lord Howe and the Comte d’Estaing. Joining Capt. Elliott, subsequently, in the Edgar 74, Mr. Durham sailed with the fleet under Sir Geo. Rodney for the relief of Gibraltar, on his passage whither he witnessed the capture of a 64-gun ship in charge of a large convoy, and bore a warm part in the action with Don Juan de Langara, 16 Jan. 1780. After an active employment of some months in the gun-boat service at ​Gibraltar, he became Acting-Lieutenant, in July, 1781, of the Victory 100, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Kempenfeldt, under whom, in Dec. following, we find him gallantly cutting through an enemy’s fleet of far superior force, commanded by M. de Guichen. In May, 1782, he accompanied the Rear-Admiral, as his Signal-officer, into the Royal George 100, and on 29 of the ensuing Aug. was one of the few who were saved from that ship when she overset at Spithead and went down. Becoming immediately attached, in a similar capacity, to the Union 90, Capt. Dalrymple, Mr. Durham again sailed for Gibraltar; after relieving which place, he appears to have been present in the thickest part of the action fought on 20 Oct. between Lord Howe’s fleet and the combined forces of France and Spain. He then proceeded to the West Indies, and, being officially promoted by commission dated 26 Dec. 1782, was next successively appointed, in March and Oct. 1783, to the Raisonnable 64, and Unicorn 20, Capts. Lord Hervey and Chas. Stirling. In March, 1786, having been for nearly two years on half-pay, he rejoined his old Captain, Elliott, then Commander-in-Chief at Newfoundland, on board the Salisbury 50, in which ship, and, as Flag-Lieutenant to the same officer, in the Barfleur 98, he continued to serve, until 12 Nov. 1790, when he was promoted to the rank of Commander, and appointed Acting-Captain of the Daphne 20. On his arrival with despatches at Jamaica, in Jan. 1791, Capt. Durham removed to the Cygnet 18, and was afterwards sent home with intelligence of the rebellion at St. Domingo. On 12 Feb. 1793, he was appointed to the Spitfire, pierced for 16, but carrying only 10 guns, and, the day following, he had the good fortune to capture L’Afrique privateer, the first vessel taken under the tri-color flag during the war. For his pre-eminent exertions while in the Spitfire, Capt. Durham was awarded the first piece of plate given by Lloyd’s, valued at 100 guineas, and on 24 June was promoted to Post-rank in the Narcissus frigate. In Jan. 1794, having removed to the Hind 28, we find him engaged in a running fight of several hours with one of a pursuing squadron of five French frigates, in which the former vessel was cut to pieces in her sails and rigging, and sustained a loss of 2 men killed and 10 wounded. In acknowledgment of his important services in safely bringing home a Mediterranean convoy of 157 sail, Capt. Durham, although he had only been a Post-Captain 16 months, was appointed, on 30 Oct. 1794, to the Anson, of 46 guns and 327 men, one of the largest frigates in the Navy, which he commanded for upwards of six years. During that period he assisted in Lord Bridport’s action with the French fleet off Ile de Groix, 23 June, 1795, and then accompanied Sir John Borlase Warren in the expedition sent to cooperate with the Royalists in Quiberon Bay, with the despatches relative to the disastrous results of which he was ultimately ordered to England. Independently of the capture and destruction of eight privateers, and of between 30 and 40 sail of merchantmen, he also, in the course of 1796, 7, and 8, assisted in occasioning the same fate to L’Etoile of 30, La Calliope of 36, the Daphne of 28, and La Flore of 36 guns. In Sept. 1798, the Anson fell in with Commodore Bompart’s squadron of one line-of-battle ship, eight frigates, a brig, and a schooner, on its way to Ireland, and for the space of 17 days, in company with the Ethalion 38, she continued to dog the enemy, until at length, having encountered Sir John Warren off Tory Island, she communicated to that officer the intelligence which led to the pursuit and capture, on 12 Oct., of La Hoche of 78 guns, and frigates Embuscade, Coquille, and Bellone. In consequence of some damages she had sustained in a recent gale, the Anson was only enabled to join in the close of the contest, when she came singly into collision with the five remaining frigates, and incurred, with fresh injury to her masts and yards, a loss of 2 men killed and 13 wounded. On 18 of the same month, being in company with the Kangaroo 18, she again endured a similar loss in a very gallant action of an hour and a quarter which terminated in the capture of La Loire of 46 guns and 664 men, of whom 46 were killed and 71 wounded. In addition to other marks of approbation which Capt. Durham received for his distinguished conduct in the operations we have here sketched, he obtained the thanks of Parliament, also a medal, and was presented by H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence with his own sword and belt. After attending for some time on the King at Weymouth, and visiting the Mediterranean, he removed, 27 Feb. 1801, to the Endymion 40, and in that ship, besides capturing La Furie privateer of 14 guns, ultimately brought home a convoy of 10 Indiamen from St. Helena, a service for which he was awarded by the Court of Directors a piece of plate valued at 500 guineas. Having resigned the command of the Endymion in April, 1802, Capt. Durham, in April, 1803, joined the Windsor Castle 98, but, on 29 May, was transferred to the Defiance 74. In 1805 he bore a conspicuous part in Sir Robt. Calder’s action, and in the battle off Cape Trafalgar, where he was slightly wounded; on the former occasion he was the means of bringing the two fleets into contact. Being appointed, on his return home, to the Renown 74, he was again, in the early part of 1806, ordered to the Mediterranean, where, in eventual command of a third division of the Toulon fleet, he united with Rear-Admiral Geo. Martin in causing the self-destruction of the French ships-of-the-line Robuste and Lion, near the mouth of the Rhone, 26 Oct. 1809. Assuming Flag-rank, 31 July, 1810, the Rear-Admiral, on 4 April, 1811, hoisted his flag in the Ardent 64, as Commander-in-Chief in the Baltic during the temporary absence of Sir Jas. Saumarez. He was afterwards, on the return of that officer, removed to the Hannibal 74, and stationed off the Texel with five sail-of-the-line under his orders, for the purpose of intercepting the expected departure of a Dutch squadron; and on next shifting his flag to the Venerable 74, he went in pursuit of a French squadron which had escaped from L’Orient. After further officiating in command, with his flag on board the Bulwark 74, of a squadron stationed off Rochefort, Rear-Admiral Durham was appointed, 16 Dec. 1813, to the- chief command in the Leeward Islands, whither he sailed in the Venerable. On his passage out he had the good fortune to capture, with a trifling loss on the part of the British, the 40-gun frigates Iphigénie and Alcmène, which surrendered (the former after considerable resistance) on 16 and 20 Jan. 1814. During his command in the Leeward Islands he completely cleared that station of a swarm of American cruizers; and, in June and Aug. 1815, he co-operated with Lieut.-General Sir Jas. Leith in securing Martinique to Louis XVIII., and in reducing Guadeloupe, where, singular to record, the last tri-color flag was struck to the Venerable, as the first had been to the Spitfire. Previously to his return to England, in April, 1816, Sir Philip Durham, who had been nominated a K.C.B. 2 Jan. 1815, was presented with a piece of plate from the island of Barbadoes, valued at 500l; a handsome sword from Trinidad, worth 100l.; and a magnificent Star of the Order of the Bath from St. Thomas’s. He was also created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit of France by Louis XVIII. His promotion to the rank of Vice- Admiral took place 12 Aug. 1819; and to that of full Admiral 22 July, 1830. From 28 March, 1836, until April, 1839, he was Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, with his flag on board the Britannia 120; and during that period he attended with a small squadron on the Queen, on the occasion of Her Majesty’s first visit to Brighton after her accession to the throne in the autumn of 1837.
Sir Philip Durham, who was Deputy-Lieutenant for Fifeshire, and Equerry to H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, became a G.C.B. 17 Nov. 1830, and sat for some time in Parliament as Member for Queenborough and Devizes. He married, first, 28 March, ​1799, Lady Charlotte Matilda Bruce, only surviving daughter of the Earl of Elgin; and, secondly, 16 Oct. 1817, Anne Isabella, only daughter and heir of the late Sir John Henderson, Bart., of Fordel, co. Fife. He again became a widower in 1844.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1798, p. 1025.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1805, pp. 982, 1411-1484.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 440.