Philip Charles Durham
British Royal Navy officer (1763-1845)
Admiral Sir Philip Charles Henderson Calderwood Durham, GCB (baptised 29 July 1763 – 2 April 1845) was a Royal Navy officer whose service in the American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars was lengthy, distinguished and at times controversial.
Biography
Philip Charles Durham was born in Largo, Fife in 1763, the fourth child and third son of James Durham. His maternal grandmother was the diarist Margaret Calderwood. He came from a wealthy landed family, and entered the navy aged fourteen in 1777 aboard the ship of the line HMS Trident. His first year at sea was somewhat blighted when that ship came under the command of a martinet captain, Anthony James Pye Molloy, under whom the ship's company grew mutinous. In 1778 Durham procured his discharge and afterwards obtained a position under his original captain, on HMS Edgar. Aboard her he saw his first action during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, later gaining the attention of Admiral Richard Kempenfelt, with whom he served on HMS Victory and HMS Royal George. Durham was watch officer on 29 August 1782 when, through no fault of his own, the Royal George, which was heeled for repairs, suddenly and catastrophically sank at Spithead. Being on deck, Durham was able to jump overboard and swim to safety, but the Admiral and over 800 persons lost their lives.
Durham then filled a lieutenant's vacancy on HMS Union in which he saw further service at the siege of Gibraltar before making a cruise to the West Indies and then another one down the African coast in HMS Raisonnable as a junior lieutenant.
“Philip Charles Durham” enters the record as british Royal Navy officer (1763-1845). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Philip, Charles and Durham can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7183344. VIAF identifies the subject as 6119788. The Library of Congress control number is no2007019179. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1763, 1845, 1777 and 1778.
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This entry incorporates text from “Philip Charles Durham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.