Ninety-six years’ naval service!
I would have loved to have met Provo Wallis!
Throughout maritime history many seamen gave a huge part of their lives to King and Country. In the course of his service at sea, John Balchen saw action in numerous battles against the French and Spanish navies across 60 years and three separate wars. Earl St.Vincent served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years’ War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He chalked up 73 years’ service. But Provo William Parry Wallis beats them all, 96 years in the Royal Navy. Yes, 96 years!
A young officer, Provo Wallis in 1813
It was in the War of 1812, during the now-famous Shannon and Chesapeake incident, 201 years ago this month, that Provo showed his real mettle. HMS Shannon captured USS Chesapeake near Boston on 1 June 1813. Shannon‘s captain, Philip Bowes Vere Broke, was badly wounded during the action and her first lieutenant was killed.
Talk about being thrown in at the deep end! Second Lieutenant Wallis found himself in command of not one but two ships crowded with dead and wounded – as well as prisoners – and close to the enemy coast. In deference to Captain Broke, lying near death in his cabin, Wallis ordered a silent ship. He then sorted out the most pressing concerns, including organising essential repairs, and set course for Halifax. Such was the burden of this command that he did not change his clothes during the six-day voyage and scarcely slept.
Provo went on to serve in various theatres and eventually became admiral of the fleet in 1877.
Provo Wallis in later years
Provo became a much-revered figure in Portsmouth, often being visited by young officers keen to pay their respects to a man who had once set eyes on the great Nelson himself.
Provo liked to row his wife in a little boat around the pond at the back of his house. At the age of 98 he was a special guest on board HMS Monarch during the great naval review to honour the recently crowned Kaiser Wilhelm II.
He’d fought at sea under sail and continued to serve well into an era of steel battleships, torpedoes, submarines and electric power. What he thought of it all has regrettably gone unrecorded…
Provo Wallis died just before his 101st birthday – and at his request was laid to rest as a sailor in a plain wooden casket with a ship’s blanket for a shroud.
Copyright notices
Portrait of a young Wallis: By Robert Field (McCord Museum/ McGill) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; Portrait of older Wallis: Public Domain via Wikipedia
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Julian Stockwin 
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There is a story waiting to be written, a movie that could be made, a TV drama with parts for everyone. Somebody DO something.
What a career! Are there any statues to honour his service anywhere? I would love to have seen a picture of him rowing his wife around the little pond behind their home! I wonder what his views of the new battleships in WWI were, compared to the one he first sailed on.
Remarkable. A better career in some respects than that of Andrea Doria who was eighty-nine when he last commanded the Genoese fleet .
Not to mention the rare honour of an appearance in a Patrick O’Brian novel – recounting the action with the Chesapeake to the Admiral in the opening pages of ‘The Surgeon’s Mate’.
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Amazing story, although being rated able seaman at 4 looks like somebody may have been claiming wages they weren’t entitled too? Which I believe may have been quite a common practice amongst Captains at the time? Along with Captains trousering the allowances given by wealthy Midshipmens parents which was supposed to be handed to their sons as needed?