James Nicoll Morris

Vice-Admiral Sir James Nicoll Morris KCB (1763 – 15 April 1830) was a Royal Navy officer who served through the American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary Wars, and Napoleonic Wars. He joined the Royal Navy in 1772 and subsequently fought as a junior officer in the Leeward Islands in the battles of St Lucia, Grenada, and the Saintes. He was promoted to commander in 1790, going to the Leeward Islands where he commanded HMS Flirt, and then he similarly had HMS Pluto on the Newfoundland Station. Morris was promoted to post-captain in 1793 and given command of HMS Boston, in which he became a successful prizetaker around Cape Finisterre. In 1798 he transferred to command HMS Lively but in April that ship was wrecked off Cadiz. His next command was HMS Phaeton in the following year. In Phaeton Morris fought in the Mediterranean, assisting the Austrian battles against French forces in Italy.

Morris was unemployed during the Peace of Amiens but received in quick succession command of a group of Sea Fencibles, then HMS Leopard, and finally HMS Colossus in 1804. In Colossus he served in the English Channel and then off Cadiz, and in October 1805 he fought at the Battle of Trafalgar where Colossus was the most heavily engaged of the British ships, fighting three enemy ships of the line and receiving around 200 casualties. Morris himself was injured in the battle but after recovering he continued to serve in Colossus until 1808. He then commanded HMS Formidable in the Baltic Fleet from 1810 until he was promoted to rear-admiral in 1811. He returned to the Baltic as third-in-command of that fleet in 1812, staying there until the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which was his last service in the navy.