Humphrey Fleming Senhouse

Captain Sir Humphrey Fleming Senhouse (29 June 1781 – 13 June 1841) was a distinguished British Royal Navy officer. He served in the Napoleonic Wars, in the War of 1812, and in the First Anglo-Chinese War.

He was the senior Royal Navy officer of the British fleet in China from 31 March 1841 until his death on board his flagship, HMS Blenheim, in Hong Kong from fever during the capture of Canton.

Early life Senhouse was born on 29 June 1781 in Barbados, where he was baptised on 23 August 1781 in the Parish of Saint Philip. He was the third son of William Senhouse (1741–1800) by the same's wife Elizabeth Ward Wood. William was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and Surveyor-General of Barbados and of the British Leeward Islands. Elizabeth was the daughter of Samson Wood, the speaker of the Barbados Assembly. Senhouse's grandfather, who was also named Humphrey Senhouse, of Netherhall, Cumberland, married Mary, who was the daughter of Sir George Fleming, 2nd Baronet, Bishop of Carlisle.

Senhouse joined the Royal Navy in January 1797 on HMS Prince of Wales, which was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry Harvey in the West Indies Station. Senhouse in November 1797 moved to the brig Requin, in which he arrived in England for the first time in 1799. Senhouse from March 1800 to April 1802 served in HMS Fisgard under Captains Thomas Byam Martin and Michael Seymour.

In the War of 1812 against the United States, he defended the Martin, aground in Delaware Bay, against a flotilla of eight gunboats and two blockships on 29 July 1813. He made prize of the 6-gun privateer Snap Dragon containing 80 men, assisted in the capture of Moose Island, and was sent home with despatches by Cochrane, announcing the success of the expedition in Castine, Maine.

In July 1831, British warships in the Mediterranean observed smoke from the emergence of a volcanic island between Pantelleria and Malta. After being detached in the cutter Hind to ascertain the smoke's position, Senhouse landed on the volcanic island on 3 August, where he planted the Union Jack and named it Graham Island. He was nominated a Knight Commander of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order on 13 April 1832,

Moody was a friend of the fellow freemason and Royal Engineer Colonel Thomas Moody ADC Kt., whom he consulted during 1838 for important engineering projects: including the Caledonian Railway, and the West Cumberland Railway, and the Furness Railway, and the embankments at Morecambe Bay and Duddon Sands.

China

On 9 April 1839, Senhouse commissioned . He was sent from England to fill the office of second-in-command of British naval forces in China, where he served in the First Anglo-Chinese War. On 31 March, Bremer sailed to Calcutta in the steamer Queen to confer with Lord Auckland about the state of affairs and request reinforcements, leaving Senhouse in command of the naval forces.

On 13 June 1841, Senhouse died on board the Blenheim in Hong Kong from fever contracted during the operations in Canton in May 1841. As the next senior naval officer, Captain Thomas Herbert took over command of the ship and fleet. Duncan MacPherson of the Madras Army wrote, "On the morning of the 13th of June, when it was announced to him [Senhouse] that all hopes of saving his life was at an end, he immediately directed that the signal be made for all captains of H. M.'s ships to repair on board; but ere the first had arrived, our gallant commodore was a corpse."

Before he died, he wished to be interred in Macao because of uncertainty about Hong Kong's future as a British settlement. The steamship Nemesis arrived with his body in Macao on 16 June. The next morning, a funeral procession began from Captain Charles Elliot's house. Major-General Hugh Gough, Captain Herbert, Deputy Superintendent of Trade Alexander Johnston, at least 70 military officers, and nearly all the British and foreign residents were in attendance. Also present was the Portuguese governor of Macau, his band who played the funeral march, and a contingent of Portuguese troops who fired three volleys over his grave at the Old Protestant Cemetery. Mount Stenhouse on Lamma Island is almost certainly named for him, but has acquired a misspelling over time.

Family

In 1810, Senhouse married Elizabeth, daughter of Vice-Admiral John Manley. They had two daughters: married Captain Pitman, who had served as Senhouse's aide-de-camp in China. Rose Mary Fleming Senhouse (d. at Gosforth 11 January 1903, aged 74)

Senhouse purchased the manor of Seascale in 1834. He built the mansion Seascale (later named Steelfield) in Gosforth.