Captain William Pryce Cumby (20 March 1771 – 27 September 1837) was an officer in the Royal Navy whose excellent service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was highlighted when he was thrust into the limelight following his service at the Battle of Trafalgar. During the battle the French almost took his vessel, the ship of the line . Despite mounting casualties, heavy bombardment and the death of John Cooke, the captain of Bellerophon, the then Lieutenant Cumby ably took command, leading a charge that cleared his decks of boarders. He then captured the enemy ship from which the attack had come. He later served in the Caribbean and on convoy duties in the Atlantic. At the time of his death, he was Superintendent of Pembroke Dockyard. Early life William Pryce Cumby was born in Dover on 20 March 1771. He was the second son of Lieutenant David Pryce Cumby, a commander in the Royal Navy, and his first wife Eleanor. The daughter of William Jepson of Heighington, she died, aged 24 on 3 April, when William was a few weeks old. In 1801 he married Ann Metcalfe who bore him 7 children before her death in 1815, including the Reverend Anthony Cumby(1803-1881) whose daughter Elizabeth married Alexander Ewing(1830-1895) Career Cumby first served on 20 May 1784, as servant to the lieutenant commanding the cutter, Kite. He was rated Able seaman, 15 February the following year and made lieutenant in the general promotions that followed the outbreak of war in 1794. He had little chance for distinction during the next eleven years, but maintained a solid reputation for good service and efficiency. Pryce Cumby served as an officer aboard the frigate , and aboard the Thalia between 1795 and 1798. He was then appointed Flag Lieutenant to Vice-Admiral Alexander Graeme at the Nore, serving in this role until 1803, when he was given command of the sloop Swift in the North Sea. In 1804 he was appointed first lieutenant of the third rate ("Billy Ruffian" to her crew). Her commander, Captain John Cooke, and Cumby had an especially close professional relationship, so when the ship lined up in Admiral Collingwood's division on 21 October 1805 in the opening stages of the battle of Trafalgar, Cooke made the unusual move of taking Cumby and the ship's master Edward Overton into his confidence about the ship's orders and Admiral Nelson's confidential