William Henry King O’Hara

Died 1789. He was allegedly the illegitimate son of Field Marshall James O Hara, the 2nd Baron Tyrawley, and if so was the brother of the illegitimate General Charles O Hara.

O Hara was commissioned lieutenant on 16 January 1768, and during 1773 he served in home waters aboard the Marlborough 74, Captain Thomas Evans, as her third lieutenant.

On 31 January 1778 he was promoted commander of the bomb Volcano 8, in which he was present at Vice-Admiral Lord Howe s relief of Rhode Island in August.

He was posted captain of the Scarborough 20 on 15 February 1780, going out to the Leeward Islands in May with Commodore Hon. Robert Walsingham s convoy which arrived in July and was sent on to Jamaica. Here in September O Hara removed to the Janus 44 in succession to the sickly Captain Horatio Nelson, and he remained with her until she was paid off in Portsmouth Harbour at the end of March 1783. His last month in command was conspicuous in so much that his crew mutinied at the delay in being paid off, causing the new first lord of the Admiralty, Lord Howe, to come down from London and personally visit the ship.

He commanded the Andromache 32 for the usual peace time commission of three years from 1783, serving in the Mediterranean, and then joined the Ambuscade 32 at the end of 1787, going out to the same station.

Captain O Hara died whilst still commanding the Ambuscade in December 1789.