# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Langton, Thomas William

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​LANGTON. (Lieut., 1823. f-p., 24; h-p., 15.)
Thomas William Langton was born in the autumn of 1796 at Leicester.
This officer entered the Navy, 23 Dec. 1808, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Amphion 32, Capt. Wm. Hoste, stationed in the Adriatic. While in that frigate, besides participating in much boat-service, it was his fortune to be present, 13 March, 1811, in the celebrated action off Lissa, where a British squadron, carrying in the whole 156 guns and 879 men, completely routed, after a battle of six hours, and a loss to the Amphion of 15 killed and 47 wounded, a Franco-Venetian armament, whose force amounted to 284 guns and 2655 men. On that occasion Mr. Langton was one of only three out of 10, composing the Midshipman’s berth, who escaped without injury. When subsequently with the same Captain in the Bacchante 38, he commanded a boat under Lieut. Silas Thomson Hood, and was spoken of in the highest possible terms for his conduct at the capture, 12 June, 1813, from under the town of Gela-Nova, on the coast of Abruzzo, of seven large gun-boats mounting each 1 long 18-pounder in the bow, 3 smaller gun-vessels with a 4-pounder in the bow, and 14 sail of merchantmen, four of which also had guns in the bow. The British, as they advanced, were exposed to a heavy fire of grape and musketry; and it was not until they were fairly alongside the gun-boats that the crews of the latter slackened their fire: they were then driven from their vessels with great loss – one, the ​largest of them, falling a prize to Mr. Langton. The shore astern of the assailed was at the commencement lined with 100 troops, who, however, fled on the first fire, leaving two field-pieces behind them. Our officer, who afterwards landed with Capt. Hoste near Trieste, under a tremendous fire from the citadel, continued in the Bacchante, which was latterly commanded by Capt. Fras. Stanfell, until July, 1815; in the course of which year we find him passing his examination, and successively joining the Seahorse 38, Capt. Sir Jas. Alex. Gordon, and Bulwark 74, flag-ship of Sir Chas. Rowley at Chatham. In May, 1818, he removed as Admiralty Midshipman to the Liffey 50, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan, in which ship he was for nearly three years and a half employed in the Channel. He next, in Oct. 1821, joined the Hind 20, Capts. Sir Chas. Burrard and Hon. Henry John Rous, with the latter of whom he ultimately went to the Mediterranean, where, after having acted for three months, he was confirmed a Lieutenant, 25 April, 1823, in the Chanticleer 10, Capt. Burton Macnamara. In the following June he invalided. His appointments have since been – 10 June, 1825, to the Gloucester 74, Capt. Joshua Sydney Horton, lying at Sheerness – in Nov. 1825, to the Coast Guard in Scotland, in which service he continued until Oct. 1830 – and 8 April, 1843, to he Admiralty Agent in a contract mail steam-vessel, a capacity in which he is now employed.
Lieut. Langton, while in the Coast Guard, was presented with a silver medal by the Royal Humane Society, and with a stock of wine by the owners, for his exertions in saving a vessel which had struck on the sands near Aberdeen. He married, in 1826, a daughter of the late Walter Mansell, Esq., of Woodperry House, Oxfordshire. Agents – Messrs. Chard.