493 
AN EPISODE IN' THE LIFE OF 
MAJOR-GENERAL G. H. YESEY, R.A. 
BY 
COLONEL T. B. TYLER, R.A. 1 
About March 1851 Captain Yesey sailed from England in command of 
a draft for the artillery at St. Helena in the brig “ Levenside.” Early 
in the voyage disputes arose between him—the least quarrelsome of 
men, though one of great firmness of character—and the master, 
Capt. Campbell, a man of arrogant temper; and the antagonism grew 
sharper as the voyage proceeded. On the 15th May, the weather being 
perfectly fine and the glass steady, the master ordered the booby- 
hatch to be closed, declaring that bad weather was to be expected; 
Captain Yesey, fully aware that the order was issued only to show the 
master's authority over him, objected that it was arbitrary and un¬ 
necessary, and calculated to injure the health of the troops (it was very 
hot), and ordered his men to remove the hatch ; this was done, and no 
change in the weather was experienced. On the 17th there occurred 
a quarrel between one of the men and the ship's carpenter, which is 
described in the quotation from The Times , and fairly correctly, but 
with this notable omission, that during the struggle for the gun, Capt. 
Yesey, seeing the master was losing his head altogether, laid hold of 
the full-cocked pistol which the latter kept pointed at him; as he did 
so Captain Campbell pulled the trigger, and Captain Yesey would have 
been shot had he not kept his thumb on the percussion cap. Ten years 
afterwards he showed me the scar on his thumb caused by the blow of 
the falling hammer. It will be observed that Captain Yesey was sup¬ 
ported in his action by Captain Neill, A.-D.-C. to Sir Emerson Tennent, 
as he was by another artillery officer who was on board, but whose 
name I forget. The rest of the story is told in the extracts from The 
Times; the case was tried and the verdict, for technical reasons, went 
against Captain Yesey. But the Duke of Wellington, then Com- 
mander-in-Chief, was so fully satisfied that Captain Yesey had acted 
rightly in the interests of the troops under his command, that he not 
only prevailed on the War Office to pay the damages laid, but also 
caused Captain Yesey to be asked if he was desirous of Staff employ. 
To this very complimentary enquiry he returned the characteristic 
reply that he wanted nothing. 
1 The circumstances connected with the story told here by Colonel Tyler are so strange and so 
few details are forthcoming that the Committee will be obliged to anyone who can and will throw 
additional light on the matter. 
10. VOL, xsi. 
