Charles Smith

Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Felix Smith (1786 – 1858), was an officer of the British Royal Engineers, of which he was colonel-commandant from 1856. He was acting Governor of Trinidad in 1828, 1830, and 1831; acting Governor of Demerara and of Berbice in 1833; acting Governor of St. Lucia in 1834; and acting Governor of Gibraltar in 1838. He received the Orders of Carlos III and of San Fernando of Spain in 1814, and the Ottoman Order of Glory in 1841. Early years Charles Felix Smith, who born on 9 July 1786 at Piercefield, Monmouthshire, was the second son of George Smith of Burn Hall, County Durham, by Juliet, who was the daughter and the sole heiress of Richard Mott of Carlton, Suffolk. The orientalist Elizabeth Smith (1776 – 1806) was his sister, and the St John's College, Cambridge, theologian George Smith (1693 – 1756) was his great-grandfather. Charles Felix joined the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich on 15 June 1801, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 1 October 1802, and was promoted to first lieutenant on 9 October 1802, as which he was sent to the south-eastern military district defences of the south coast of Kent. West Indies, 1804–1810 On 16 December 1804, Felix embarked for the West Indies, where he served under Sir Charles Shipley, the commanding Royal Engineer. He was promoted to be second captain on 18 November 1807. In December 1807 he accompanied the expedition under General Bowyer from Barbados against the Danish West India Islands, and took part under Shipley in the operations which resulted in the capture of St. Thomas, St. John, and Santa Cruz. In January 1809 he accompanied the expedition under Sir George Beckwith to attack Martinique, and took part under Shipley in the attack on, and capture of, Pigeon Island on 4 February, and in the siege and capture of Fort Bourbon, which led to the capitulation of the whole island on 23 February. He was severely wounded on this occasion, and on his return to England on 31 March 1810 he received an annual pension of 100l. for his wounds. Spain, 1810–1813