Admiral of the Fleet Sir Provo William Parry Wallis, (12 April 1791 – 13 February 1892) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, following the capture of USS Chesapeake by the frigate during the War of 1812, the wounding of HMS Shannons captain and the death of her first lieutenant in the action, he served as the temporary captain of HMS Shannon as she returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with Chesapeake. As commanding officer of the fifth-rate , Wallis earned the thanks of the people of Veracruz in Mexico when he protected them from French bombardment during the Pastry War. He went on to be Senior Naval Officer, Gibraltar, and then Commander-in-Chief on the South East Coast of America Station. Wallis was promoted to senior flag officer positions and was still carried on the active list at 100 years old when he died. Early career He was the son of Provo Featherstone Wallis, a clerk at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by his wife Elizabeth Lawlor. Wallis benefited from his father's desire to secure a naval career for his son. Knowing the rules for an officer's entry into the navy, his father managed to get him officially registered in May 1795, at the age of four, as an able seaman on the 36-gun frigate HMS Oiseau, under Captain Robert Murray. In May 1798, young Provo became a volunteer in the 40-gun frigate where he remained (on paper at least) until September 1799 when he joined the 64-gun third-rate . He served on HMS Asia until September 1800, when he was promoted to midshipman in the 32-gun fifth-rate . HMS Cleopatra was the first ship he physically served aboard – he physically joined the ship in October 1804 – but by now he had amassed nearly a decade of seniority. In an action on 16 February 1805, HMS Cleopatra was captured by the French frigate Ville de Milan and the ship's company taken prisoner of war. Wallis was freed a week later when Ville de Milan was itself captured by the Royal Navy: he transferred to Ville de Milan which now became a British ship. Wallis transferred to the third-rate in November 1806 and to the third-rate in February 1808 and, having been promoted to lieutenant on 13 November 1808, he transferred again to the sloop-of-war later that month. HMS Curieux ran aground and was wrecked on