Gwen Chessel - Richard Spencer: Napoleonic War Naval Hero and Australian Pioneer

Gwen Chessel

Richard Spencer: Napoleonic War Naval Hero and Australian Pioneer

Crawley WA: U of Western Australia Press, 2005

Pp. xii + 169                Hardback         ISBN 1 920694 40 4

Richard Spencer was born in 1779. He served as a naval officer during the Napoleonic wars, in the Mediterranean and the East Indies. In 1833, he brought his family to Albany in the new and struggling colony of Western Australia, where he died six years later. Family tradition claims either that he was an illegitimate son of the future king William IV, or of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, a Spencer by birth and deliciously immoral by choice. William would have hit puberty remarkably early for William to have been his parent, but Georgiana qualifies at least on grounds of age. However, a more prosaic baptismal record indicates that his father, a Southwark sail-maker and businessman, was a genuine Spencer. (In fact, his parents were the original Richard and Judy.) Gwen Chessell’s biography is an excellent example of the way that committed detective work can turn up an impressive amount of information about a minor figure, and even conjure a personalised portrait from cold official files. The book is handsomely illustrated, making it a splendid addition to the literature of pioneer days in Western Australia.