STORMING SIDON:
THE ORIENTAL CRISIS, EGYPTIAN-OTTOMAN WAR, 1840
Lieutenant Charles Hockin, Royal Marines
St. Felicitas, Phillack, Cornwall
(for Hockin's background and prior campaign, see Europe, First Carlist War)
Then, as now, the western powers preferred stability in the Middle East, but in the first half of the 19th century that stability was lacking. The Ottoman Empire, which was in nominal control, was enfeebled. Memhet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, decided the time was right to seize independence for that country, and presumably power for himself. In 1839 his forces, commanded by his son Ibrahim, were in what was then Syria, now Lebanon, having defeated an Ottoman army at the battle of Nezib. This victory placed Constantinople (now Istanbul) and the Eastern Mediterranean under threat, and so the British, supported by the Russians and the Austrians, moved to forestall Mehmet’s further advances, and push him back to Egypt, as they wished to preserve the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, presumably on the principle of better the devil you know, particularly a weakened one.
Hockin’s force of marines was attached to HMS Stromboli, a steam-powered paddle sloop launched in 1839. In September 1840 the ship was one of those ordered to Sidon, 40 kilometres south of Beirut, the main supply base for the Egyptian army, to storm the fort there. From an account pertaining to Marine Private Charles Welch it appears to have been a minor engagement, with few casualties on either side, and only one on the British – unfortunately for Charles Hockin, he was that one.
The Stromboli had landed its Marines on the beach. Under musket fire, with orders to secure the town, Lieutenants Hockin and Onslow started clearing houses street by street. Hockin received a musket ball through the arm which passed on and lodged in his throat. Still conscious he was taken back onto the Stromboli and transferred to the Captain's cabin, where he died before the ship's surgeon could operate.
British victory cut the Egyptian army's access to the coast, and without access to the coast for its supply chain it was forced to withdraw, and a peace settlement was reached which assured the continuation of the Ottomans for a few more years. Ironically, this British desire to see the perpetuation of the Ottoman stability would, just over a decade later, see it engaged in a serious war against its erstwhile ally, Russia.
Strange that Hockin fought and died in two such obscure campaigns, as otherwise his family seem to have epitomised the 19th Century middle-class. He was the younger son who went off to join the army. His father, a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, was the vicar of Phillack, beneficiary of that arrangement set up by his grandfather in the 1750, and Charles' brother, Frederick, succeeded as vicar having previously been an attorney. Another son, William, also became a solicitor’s clerk in 1827, and in 1871 was in Truro as a solicitor. The Church, the Law, and the Army; Charles got the unlucky roll of the dice.
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT CHARLES FRANCIS HOCKIN OF H. M. ROYAL MARINES CORPS WHO FELL WHILE GALLANTLY LEADING HIS MEN IN THE STORMING OF SIDON, IN SYRIA, ON THE 20TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1840. HIS REMAINS WERE INTERRED WITH MILITARY HONORS, IN THE BRITISH CAMP, AT D'JOUNI, NEAR BEIROUT. HE HAD SERVED FOUR YEARS IN THE NORTH OF SPAIN, AND HAD RECEIVED FROM THE QUEEN REGENT THE CROSS OF THE ORDER OF ST FERDINAND, FOR THE PART HE BORE IN THE ACTIONS OF ANDOUIN AND HERNANI. HIS CONDUCT AS AN OFFICER OBTAINED HIM THE HIGH ESTEEM AND REGARD OF THOSE WHOM HE SERVED AND HIS AMIABLE DISPOSITION ENDEARED HIM TO ALL WHO KNEW HIM. HE WAS THE FIFTH SON OF THE REVD WM HOCKIN, RECTOR OF THIS PARISH, BY PEGGY, HIS WIFE, DAUGHTER OF THE REVD A WILLIAMS, OF TRENEERE, WHO HAVE ERECTED THIS TABLET TO THE THE MEMORY OF AN EXCELLENT SON, THUS FALLING IN THE 27TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
Then, as now, the western powers preferred stability in the Middle East, but in the first half of the 19th century that stability was lacking. The Ottoman Empire, which was in nominal control, was enfeebled. Memhet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, decided the time was right to seize independence for that country, and presumably power for himself. In 1839 his forces, commanded by his son Ibrahim, were in what was then Syria, now Lebanon, having defeated an Ottoman army at the battle of Nezib. This victory placed Constantinople (now Istanbul) and the Eastern Mediterranean under threat, and so the British, supported by the Russians and the Austrians, moved to forestall Mehmet’s further advances, and push him back to Egypt, as they wished to preserve the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, presumably on the principle of better the devil you know, particularly a weakened one.
Hockin’s force of marines was attached to HMS Stromboli, a steam-powered paddle sloop launched in 1839. In September 1840 the ship was one of those ordered to Sidon, 40 kilometres south of Beirut, the main supply base for the Egyptian army, to storm the fort there. From an account pertaining to Marine Private Charles Welch it appears to have been a minor engagement, with few casualties on either side, and only one on the British – unfortunately for Charles Hockin, he was that one.
The Stromboli had landed its Marines on the beach. Under musket fire, with orders to secure the town, Lieutenants Hockin and Onslow started clearing houses street by street. Hockin received a musket ball through the arm which passed on and lodged in his throat. Still conscious he was taken back onto the Stromboli and transferred to the Captain's cabin, where he died before the ship's surgeon could operate.
British victory cut the Egyptian army's access to the coast, and without access to the coast for its supply chain it was forced to withdraw, and a peace settlement was reached which assured the continuation of the Ottomans for a few more years. Ironically, this British desire to see the perpetuation of the Ottoman stability would, just over a decade later, see it engaged in a serious war against its erstwhile ally, Russia.
Strange that Hockin fought and died in two such obscure campaigns, as otherwise his family seem to have epitomised the 19th Century middle-class. He was the younger son who went off to join the army. His father, a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, was the vicar of Phillack, beneficiary of that arrangement set up by his grandfather in the 1750, and Charles' brother, Frederick, succeeded as vicar having previously been an attorney. Another son, William, also became a solicitor’s clerk in 1827, and in 1871 was in Truro as a solicitor. The Church, the Law, and the Army; Charles got the unlucky roll of the dice.
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT CHARLES FRANCIS HOCKIN OF H. M. ROYAL MARINES CORPS WHO FELL WHILE GALLANTLY LEADING HIS MEN IN THE STORMING OF SIDON, IN SYRIA, ON THE 20TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1840. HIS REMAINS WERE INTERRED WITH MILITARY HONORS, IN THE BRITISH CAMP, AT D'JOUNI, NEAR BEIROUT. HE HAD SERVED FOUR YEARS IN THE NORTH OF SPAIN, AND HAD RECEIVED FROM THE QUEEN REGENT THE CROSS OF THE ORDER OF ST FERDINAND, FOR THE PART HE BORE IN THE ACTIONS OF ANDOUIN AND HERNANI. HIS CONDUCT AS AN OFFICER OBTAINED HIM THE HIGH ESTEEM AND REGARD OF THOSE WHOM HE SERVED AND HIS AMIABLE DISPOSITION ENDEARED HIM TO ALL WHO KNEW HIM. HE WAS THE FIFTH SON OF THE REVD WM HOCKIN, RECTOR OF THIS PARISH, BY PEGGY, HIS WIFE, DAUGHTER OF THE REVD A WILLIAMS, OF TRENEERE, WHO HAVE ERECTED THIS TABLET TO THE THE MEMORY OF AN EXCELLENT SON, THUS FALLING IN THE 27TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
Sources
Photos
St. Felicitas, Phillack - from geography.org.uk, Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0
Attack on Sidon by Commodore Charles Napier - Wikimedia Commons
Charles Hockin's memorial tablet - author
Military
http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-8202.html
http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8202
The West Briton, November, 1840 - extract viewed on www.azazella.proboards.com, a Cornish Family History site
The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present (William Laird Clowes, sampson Low, Marston & Co., London, 1901) - viewable on archive.org
Genealogy
www.ancestry.co.uk
© Jonathan Dewhirst 2013
Photos
St. Felicitas, Phillack - from geography.org.uk, Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0
Attack on Sidon by Commodore Charles Napier - Wikimedia Commons
Charles Hockin's memorial tablet - author
Military
http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-8202.html
http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8202
The West Briton, November, 1840 - extract viewed on www.azazella.proboards.com, a Cornish Family History site
The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present (William Laird Clowes, sampson Low, Marston & Co., London, 1901) - viewable on archive.org
Genealogy
www.ancestry.co.uk
© Jonathan Dewhirst 2013