page_title: William Hall Gage
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: William Hall Gage / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: Capture of the Mahonesa Octr. 13th 1796
context_page_description: Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Hall Gage GCB, GCH was Second Sea Lord in the British Navy. He took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent and the Siege of French-held Malta during the French Revolutionary Wars. He also saw action at the attack on the French ship Romulus during the closing stages of the Napoleonic Wars.
  As a senior officer, Gage became Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station and went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Downs Station. Following the Belgian Revolution, Gage took part in the blockade of the Scheldt, offering naval support to the new Kingdom of Belgium. He then became Commander-in-Chief in Lisbon Station, with orders to protect the young Queen Maria II during the Liberal Wars. After that, Gage became Second Naval Lord in the Second Peel ministry and then Commander-in-Chief, Devonport.
context_section_description: Born the third son of General Thomas Gage and Margaret Kemble, Gage joined the Royal Navy in November 1789. He was appointed to the third-rate HMS Bellona at Portsmouth and, having been promoted to midshipman, transferred to the third-rate HMS Captain in September 1790. He went on to serve in the third-rate HMS Colossus, the sixth-rate HMS Proserpine, the third-rate HMS America, the third-rate HMS Egmont and then the second-rate HMS Princess Royal. In HMS Princess Royal he took part in the Battle of Leghorn in March 1795 and the Battle of Toulon in July 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He then transferred to third-rate HMS Bedford and saw action off Cádiz and then moved to the first-rate HMS Victory, flagship of Sir John Jervis in his role as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Squadron.
  Gage's grandfather had been a cousin of Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet who was a noted patron of Sussex cricket in the first half of the 18th century: Gage himself became involved in cricket and is recorded playing in two matches for the Montpelier and Kennington team in 1796 and in a first-class match in 1802. He had only one innings in that match and scored 15 not out.
  Gage transferred to the fifth-rate HMS Minerve in January 1796, and having been promoted to lieutenant on 11 March 1796, he took part in the capture of the Spanish ship Santa Sabina in December 1796. He also took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 and led the Minerve's boats' crews in company with those of the frigate HMS Lively in the cutting out of the French ship Mutine at Santa Cruz, Tenerife in May 1797. Promoted to commander on 13 June 1797 and to captain on 26 July 1797, he became commanding officer of the fifth-rate HMS Terpsichore and sailed to the Mediterranean to conduct the Siege of French-held Malta. In HMS Terpsichore he also conveyed Charles Emmanuel, who had just abdicated as Prince of Piedmont, to exile in Sardinia in February 1799 and captured the Spanish ship San Antonio in June 1799. In July 1800 he was involved in an incident in which his squadron stopped and searched a Danish convoy heading for France: the incident led to the formation of the Second League of Armed Neutrality, an alliance between Denmark–Norway, Prussia, Sweden and Russia.
  Gage became commanding officer of the fifth-rate HMS Uranie in the Channel Squadron in March 1801 and took part in the capture of the French ship Chevrette in July 1801. He went on to be commanding officer of the fifth-rate HMS Thetis in the Mediterranean Squadron in July 1805 and of the third-rate HMS Indus also in the Mediterranean Squadron in February 1813. In HMS Indus he saw action at the attack on the French ship Romulus in February 1814 during the closing stages of the Napoleonic Wars.
caption: The fifth-rate HMS Terpsichore (on the left) which Gage commanded during the Siege of French-held Malta.
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