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William Hole was Commander of the Coast Guard Station at Budleigh Salterton in the early 1850’s and lived at 11 Victoria Place (1,2).  He was born in West Buckland near Barnstaple in November 1792 and he was the only son of W.B. Hole of Jamaica, and the nephew of Rear Admiral Lewis Hole.  His service record (3) shows that he entered the Navy in October 1805 as a first class volunteer on the sloop Star.  

That ship had service on the Channel, Lisbon and Newfoundland stations, and he later transferred in 1809 with his Captain (John Simpson) into the Wolverine, an 18-gun brig-sloop that had been built and launched in 1805 in Topsham. Simpson commanded Wolverine during the invasion of Martinique in January and February 1809 and William Hole was a Midshipman on the boat.  On 15 January 1809 Wolverine, in company with Pompee, Captain and Circe, captured the French brig Josephine.  That same day Wolverine captured the Napoleon. 

In March 1809 Hole transferred as a Midshipman into the schooner H.M.S. Bacchus where he stayed until June 1811.  In December 1809 he commanded one of the row-boats from four British ships that captured the French brig-corvette Le Nisus which lay heavily defended under the guns of the harbour fort at Hayes in the north west of Guadeloupe.  They also destroyed the gun battery.  He was later the only recipient from H.M.S. Bacchus of a clasp for his general service medal (see below) for this action (4). 

Later in February 1810 he was involved in an action in which Bacchus fought off two French schooner-privateers.  Hole served as  a Midshipman in Bacchus for the combined naval and military operations commanded by (the famous) Vice Admiral the Honourable Sir Alexander Cochrane and Lieutenant General Sir George Beckwith which culminated in the capture of the French-held island of Guadaloupe.  He then took on the duties of Acting-Master before leaving Bacchus in June 1811. 

He transferred for two years onto H.M.S. Ganymede as Master's Mate, and served on her in the West Indies and the Mediterranean; after two years he was  returned to the Bacchus sloop (commanded by his uncle) on the Cork station.  He passed his exam for Lieutenant in 1812 but had to wait for a vacancy until 1815 to attain the rank.  In the interim, in April, 1814, he was appointed to the Trave, and went with her to North America, where, after having commanded a boat at the destruction of Commodore Barney's flotilla up the River Patuxent in Maryland, he landed and served with the army in the attack upon Baltimore.  

On 14 December 1814 the Royal Navy deployed forty-two longboats and three gigs from their naval squadron to attack part of the United States Navy on Lake Borgne in Louisiana.  Hole commanded one of the boats at the capture of these five American gun-boats, which did not surrender until the British, after a savage conflict, had endured the loss of seventeen men killed and seventy-seven wounded.  He also was engaged in the subsequent hostilities against New Orleans when he again had charge of a boat, an eight-oared cutter, on the river Mississippi, and took an active part in all the actions, including the storming and capture of a heavy battery; for six weeks he was exposed with his crew in an unsheltered boat, and was severely frost-bitten.  

Hole, was awarded the 1793-1840 Naval General Service Medal his having four clasps, relating to his involvements in conflicts in Martinique and Guadeloupe, as well as a December 13 Boat Service medal from 1809 and a December 14 boat service medal from 1814 (4, and see illustration).

Like many other naval personnel, employment became difficult when our involvement in the European and North American wars waned, and from March 1827 until he retired he was employed with HM Coast Guard Service. He was Chief Officer at Portmuck in Antrim in 1838 and then Chief Officer in Belfast from 1839 to 1845 (5). He then moved to Budleigh Salterton and is listed as living on West Hill with his family in the 1845 Baker Directory of the town. He was apparently a very effective Coast Guard Officer and it was said of him that 'his exertions have been of a very signal nature, as testified by numerous high testimonials from his superior officers, as well by various letters of thanks addressed to him by Lloyd's for salvage of property in cases of ship wreck. He has been instrumental...in the conviction of an extraordinary number of smugglers' (4). 

In 1816 he married Eliza Herbert who was born in Bedminster, Somerset the daughter of Richard Mallard Herbert.  William and Eliza had a son and a daughter. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon,© 2011 

(1)Town Directories

(2)1851 Census

(3)“A naval biographical dictionary: comprising the life and services ...”, Volume 1 By William R. O'Byrne  Google Books

(4)http://www.auction-net.co.uk/viewAuction.php

(5)www.coastguardsofyesteryear.org

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