Robert Wauchope (Royal Navy officer)

Robert Wauchope, (1788–1862) was a British admiral and inventor of the time ball. He was the fifth son of Andrew Wauchope (d.1823) of Niddrie-Marischall, Midlothian, Scotland, and Alice Baird (d.1814), daughter of William Baird of Newbyth.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1802, was commissioned in 1808, and served in the Napoleonic wars, notably as a lieutenant in Captain Samuel Pym's disastrous attack on Mauritius in August 1810. After the destruction of his ship, the Magicienne, Wauchope set off in a cutter to Réunion, 140 miles away, to warn Commodore Josias Rowley. He was picked up by Rowley the next day, and took part in Admiral Albemarle Bertie's capture of Mauritius in December 1810. He was promoted to captain in 1814 after which he commanded HMS Eurydice. He visited Napoleon on St Helena 1816 and was stationed for the next three years at the Cape and St Helena.

He became "born again of the Holy Spirit" (Short Narrative, 84) in 1819 and expressed his disapproval to Admiral Robert Plampin of his "living openly with a kept mistress" (ibid, 87). His religious views contributed to him spending all but four years thereafter on half pay.

He married in 1822 Anne Carnegie, fourth daughter of Sir David Carnegie, bt., and settled in Easter Duddingston, Midlothian and later at Moorhouse Hall in Cumberland. Their only child died a minor in 1844.

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