Sir James Everard HomePrint Page

The plaque erected by the officers and the ships company commemorates the Captain of H.M.S. Calliope, Sir James Everard Home who died in 1853. 

It is with feeling of sincere regret that we announce the death of Captain Sir Everard Home, Baronet, senior naval officer on this station, who expired on board the Calliope on Tuesday evening. The deceased officer was the son of Sir Everard Home, Sergeant Surgeon to George the Third, by the daughter of James Tunstall, Esq., D.D., relict of Stephen Thompson, Esq, nephew of Captain William Home, E.I.C.S.,and of John Hunter, Esq., Surgeon-General to the army. He was born on the 25th October, 1798, and entered the navy 10th April, 1810, as midshipman on board the Euryalus frigate, Captain Hon. George Heneage Lawrence Dundas. He subsequently sailed on board the Malta, Tonnant, Sybille, and Larne, to which last he was promoted to a Lieutenancy on the 14th July, 1814.

He was next appointed to the Pique, which he left for the Helicon, and in 1841 was appointed Captain of the North Star, and served in her during the war with China, and also at the disturbances at the Bay of Islands. In 1850 he assumed the command of the Calliope, 26, destined for the New Zealand station. He accidentally received a severe wound from a capstan bar whilst this ship was being towed out. After his recovery the Calliope made several cruises to the various groups of islands on this Station, during which this lamented officer's health improved. About a mouth since he was attacked by paralysis, which unhappily terminated fatally. His character may be summed up in a few words,-"He was every inch a sailor." He won the esteem of all who knew him by the kindliness of his disposition and his many shining virtues.

On Thursday a Gazette extraordinary was published with the following announcement:-"His Excellency, the Governor-General, with feelings of deep regret, announces to the public the decease of Captain Sir James Everard Home, Baronet, C.B., commanding Her Majesty's ship Calliope, and senior naval officer on the Australian Station. The funeral procession will move from the Circular Quay tomorrow at half-past ten o'clock a.m., and His Excellency, the Governor-General, with a desire  to show every possible respect to thc memory of the deceased, directs that the public offices be closed, and invites all officers of the Civil Government to attend." The same respect shown by the Government to the deceased officer was manifested by the community at large; every shop in the line of the procession was closed, and the streets were lined with thousands of the inhabitants, whose silent and serious air bespoke their feelings of sorrow on the sad occasion which had called them together. 

The procession was headed by the mounted police, after whom came the military with arms reversed, the Staff, and Band of the 11th Regiment, playing the Dead March in Saul. The blue jackets followed, drawing the coffin on a gun carriage-; the Naval Officers, the Honorable Keith Stewart, Colonel M'Arthur, Captain Fitz Roy succeeded these, and the funeral train was completed by most of the Civil Officers of the Government, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Therry, the Mayor, and many of the principal inhabitants of Sydney. The remains of the deceased were finally placed in the the cemetery at Camperdown with the accustomed honors. We cannot conclude this notice without mentioning one circumstance which shows the thoughtful kindness of this distinguished officer. In his will he left legacies to every one serving under him in the Calliope the amounts being in exact proportion to their station.
Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer (NSW), 
5 November 1853.

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