Provo Wallis

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Provo William Parry Wallis, (12 April 1791 – 13 February 1892) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, following the capture of USS Chesapeake by the frigate during the War of 1812, the wounding of HMS Shannons captain and the death of her first lieutenant in the action, he served as the temporary captain of HMS Shannon as she returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with Chesapeake. As commanding officer of the fifth-rate , Wallis earned the thanks of the people of Veracruz in Mexico when he protected them from French bombardment during the Pastry War. He went on to be Senior Naval Officer, Gibraltar, and then Commander-in-Chief on the South East Coast of America Station. Wallis was promoted to senior flag officer positions and was still carried on the active list at 100 years old when he died. Early career He was the son of Provo Featherstone Wallis, a clerk at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by his wife Elizabeth Lawlor. Wallis benefited from his father's desire to secure a naval career for his son. Knowing the rules for an officer's entry into the navy, his father managed to get him officially registered in May 1795, at the age of four, as an able seaman on the 36-gun frigate HMS Oiseau, under Captain Robert Murray.