The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-31 00:00:00

It is with the deepest regret that we announce the
,ecease of Capt. Win. John Cole, R.N., nho de-
parted this life, surrounded by his family, on Thursday,
the 15th inst. Few men were reorer generally beloved
than he was. To those who intimately knew him his
loss will be great ; but to his family, to whom he was
devotedly attached, it will he irreparable. He served
his country gallantly for many years,ils the record of
his career taken below, from " Olfrne's History of
Naval Officers," will tell. As an °finer, a magistrate, a
Christian, a parent, and a geratleinau, we may never see
his like again. He was exemplary in all the duties of
life, end never was so lia,ppy as when planning some-
thing for the benefi!; of his poor parishioners ; but he
was strict in encouraging only the sober, honest, and
industrious. In him the Queen has lost a devoted sub-
keen the country a patriot, the poor mai. a true friend,
and the service a bright. example. The following sketch
of hi; life is taken from " O'Byrne's Naval Bio-
graphy :"
This officer entered the navy sth of January, 1802, as
second-class bey, on bean 1 the Buffalo store ship, com-
manded by that excellent officer the late Captain William
Kent, with whom, after visiting India, witnessing the
first settlement ever formed in Van Diemen's Land, and
p -donning much surveying duty, he returned to England
December, 1805, on hoard the Investigator, a very
small vessel, whose crew, eel their arrival at Liverpool,
were rewarded with double pay for their exertions and
the hardships they had endured in having effected a pas-
sage from Port Jackson to the above place without
touching at any intermediate port. The voyage had
occupied a period of five months, during eleven weeks
o! which the men hrd been restricted to half a pint of
water each a day. On becoming attached, as midship-
man, to the Meduse, 32. Captain the Hon. Duncombe
Pleydell Bouverie, Mr. Cole next sailed for the Cape of
Good Elope, and thence for South America, where he
served in the boats at the capture of Maldonado. While
yet on the same station. in the Diadem, 64, bearing the
broad pendant at first of Sir Home Popham, and the
Wig afterwards of Rear-Admiral Charles Stirling, we
find him assiduously employed at the siege of Monte
Video, both in dragging up the guns for the advanced
batteries and in supplying them with ammunition.
During a subsequent attachment, from May, 1.808, to
June, 1810, to the Christian VII. 80, Captain Joseph
Sidney Yorke, les received a wassail at the cutting out of
a convoy from under a heavy battery in Basque
Roads ; served in the ship's cutter at the cap-
ture of a large gun-beat: off lle d'Aix, where
the officer of the French vessel was desperately
wounded, and three of his men killed ; and was severely
bruised by the explosion of a fire-vessel, While en-
deavouring, under the late Captain Gardiner Henry
Guioe, to lay her on beard a Preach frigate in the road
of Ile d'Aix. As a reward for these services, Mr. Cole,
on the IStli of July, 1810, was promoted to the Race-
horse, 18, Captain William Fiaber, to a lieutenancy in
the Otter sloop, Captain James Tornkinson, which vessel
had, however, sailed for England before he could reach
the Isle of France to join her_ He then, although on
half-pay, volunteered to fit out. a large prize-frigate, La
Bollone, found, on the capture of the latter place, dis-
masted, and without a bowsprit; after which service be
returned to England on board the Entreprenante, 10,
Captain Edward Brazier, and became first lieutenant,
17th July, 1311, of the Crocodile, 28, Captains John
Filmore, John Richard Lumley, and William Elliott.
In that frigate he was actively employed on the Channel,
Lisbon, Mediterranean, and Newfoundland stations ;
and on one occasion, is July, 1312, displayed much gal-
lantry in attempting, with four boats and 62 volunteers,
to cut out in open day a detachment of four armed yes.
sell, together with'it convoy, lying beneath the batteries
in the Bay of Pares, on the coast of France, where the
Crocodile's cutter, then under Commander Joe. Roche,
was unfortunately sunk by a shot from a national brig.
Between 1815 and the date of his promotion to the
rank of commander, Bth of August, 1828, Mr. Cole
appears to have afterwards served, generally as first
lieutenant, and chiefly on the home station, on board
the Rhin, 33, Captain Charles Malcolm, Florida. 29,
Captains William Elliott and Charles Sibthorp John
Hawtsyne, Northumberland, 73, Captains Sir Michasl
Seymour, John Harvey, and ThomasJamesMaling ; Cams
bridge,Bo,commanded by the latter officer; Prince Regent,
126, bearing the flag of Sir Benjamin Hallowell ; Royal
George and Royal Sovereign yachts ; as also in com-
mand of the Onyx, 10. He obtained, while in the Rhin,
the thanks of Captain Malcom, for his ability in con-
ducting that ship through a difficult navigation, while
the latter officer, with all but sixty-two of the crew
was engaged on a cutting out expedition in the small
harbour of Corrijou, near Abervrach, Bth of July, 1815
—had charge, during his attachment to the Northumber-
land, of the Seagull and Hightlyer tenders—cruised in
the Royal Sovereign, as first lieutenant to H.R.H the
Lord High Admiral ; and for his exertions during a
violent gale in the same vessel, when conveying to Hol-
land the Queen of Wertemburg, was mentioned in the
despatcnes of Sir William Freernantle to George IV.--
and when in command of the Onyx, ran to the coast of
Africa with important despatches and invalids front
Fernando Po. From the 6th of July, 1831, until 1834,
Captain Cole next held a responsible appointment in the
Coast Guard ; on leaving which service he was pre-
sented by the chief officers and others who had been un-
der his command with a superb silver snuff-box as a
token of their respect and regard for him. He further
officiated from the 28th of January, 1836, until
paid off in 1837, as second captain of the Revenge, 78,
commanded in the Mediterranean by his estimable friend
Capt. Wm. Elliott ; but since his attainment of post-
rank, 1838, has been on half-pay. Captain Cole
(who was nominated a K.H. Ist January, 1837, and
is a magistrate for the county of Gloucester) Las had the
pride, on four separate occasions, of preserving the
life of others by imminently hazarding his own—first dur-
ing his servitude in the Crocodile, when his intrepidity
in saving two officers and a seaman from a watery grave
procured him, through the hands of H.R.H. the late
Duke of Sussex, a first-class gold medal from the Royal
Humane Society ; secondly, on his passage to the coast
of Africa in the Onyx, when he jumped overboard after
a seaman who had fallen out of a stern-boat in the act of
being lowered down ; a third lime, in the river Thames,
where, in .Tuly, 1335, being at the time a passenger on
board the Red Rover steamer, be rescued two gentlemen,
Messrs. John Snape and Gilbert Wilson, who had been
upset in a wherry by getting under the bows of that
vessel ; and, again, in J une 1336, when he plunged into
the sea after one of the gunner's crew belonging to the
Revenge, who had fallen from the main-chains. He
married, 23d October, 1813, Elizabeth, eldest daughter
of Robert Wace, Esq., of Lechlade, in the county of
Gloucester, anti has issue four daughters.

THUNDER SFORM IN SUSSEX.

-4.--

BRIGHTON, Mir 30.
A violent storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied
with heavy rains and hail, visited the western part of
Sussex on Thursday, extending to Brighton, Lewes, and
neighbourhood. Littlehampton, Worthing, and Shoreham
appear to have felt its effects the most severely. In the
vicinity of the former place, a bullock was killed by the
lightning, and the electric fluid also struck the wires of
the telegraph between the Ford and Littlehampton sta-
tions, doing considerable damage, and passed into the
latter station, completely destroyed the telegraphic in-
strumfmt. Fortunately no person was touching it at the
time, or the consequences might have been serious. The
rain fell in torrents ; and at Worthing the town was
almost deluged, but we bAieve no particular damage re-
sulted, though tha thunder and lightning was terrific.
At Shoreham tho storm raged most furiously, and was
nearly being attended with a fatal result. Five or six
of Mr. Bailey's workmen were engaged on the mast of a
which was in the course of erection in the yard,
when they were all struck by the lightning, and were
all more or lees injured, one most seriously. At
Brighton and Lewes the storm was sensibly felt, al-
though not to so great an extent. The rain, however,
foil in such torrents between Lewes and Keymer, that a
portion of the railway on that line was completely inun-
dated, and the trains had to pass through water for
some distance.

Another account says :—The storm came on a little
before noon, and extended from near Hastings to P,
mouth, and about 10 miles inland. The peals of thunder
were tremendous, and the lightning exceedingly vivid ;
while the rain poured down in continuous streams, over-
flowing the rivers, and covering the lowlands with water.
At Chailey the parsonage-house, which is built on the
low ground, near a stream of water, was completely
surrouni:ed by the flood, which entered the house, and
filled theromus on the ground floor to a height of seve-
ral feet. the inmates being obliged to betake themselves
to the upper rooms for shelter. At lleathfield a farm
servant, named Piper, Nvas struck by lightning while
sitting near a window eating his dinner, and was killed
almost instantaneously. liis master was sitting in the
room, and at the same moment experiencod a severe
shock, but escaped from personal injury. The storm
came on so suddenly, that it is feared the dantage done
to the cattle will be very great, axd the growing crops
are much injured in many places.