Gwen Chessell

Richard Spencer: Napoleonic Naval Hero and Australian Pioneer (Staples) Gwen Chessell

Captain Sir Richard Spencer RN was a 19th century man of action. He was adventurous, resourceful, and devoted to those in his care. He is remembered today as the early Government Resident of the fledgling settlement in Albany on the south coast of Western Australia. Albany was a shanty town when the ship bearing Richard and Ann Spencer and their nine children, anchored in Princess Royal Harbor in 1833. The family all but doubled the town's population. Richard Spencer worked diligently to administer the turbulent pioneer settlement, living peacefully with the local Aboriginal people and helping guarantee Albany's future as a settlement and port. The story of his early life in the Royal Navy of Admiral Lord Nelson's day is told here for the first time. Zealous, intrepid to the point of foolhardiness, and a hero to his men, Captain Spencer was a rising star during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.