A small collection of certificates and service documents of Rear-Admiral James Francis Ballard Wainwright (1820-1872). There are also some letters relating to his role as captain in charge of the naval establishments at Bermuda when the new floating dock arrived in July 1869.

Administrative / biographical background
James Francis Ballard Wainwright was born at Fareham in Hampshire in 1820, the youngest son of Captain John Wainwright (died 1819). He entered the Navy in 1832 and passed his examinations at the Royal Naval College in 1841. Between 1842 and 1846 he was gunnery lieutenant on the frigate HMS WINCHESTER (1822), flagship of Rear-Admiral Josceline Percy, Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope. He then served on the frigate HMS CONSTANCE (1846) in the Pacific and then on HMS HASTINGS (1819), flagship of Rear-Admiral Francis A. Collier in the East Indies. Wainwright was promoted to the rank of commander in 1849 and was briefly in the post of agent for mails before joining HMS WINCHESTER (1822), flagship of Rear-Admiral Fleetwood B.R. Pellew in the East Indies. He briefly became captain of HMS CALLIOPE (1837) following the death of Sir James E. Home at Sydney. His commands between 1857 and 1869 were the paddle frigate HMS LEOPARD (1850), the screw frigate HMS SHANNON (1855), the broadside ironclad HMS BLACK PRINCE (1861), and then the floating battery HMS TERROR (1856), base ship at Bermuda. He was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral in 1869. Wainwright married Francis Isabella Collier, daughter of Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Augustus Collier, in 1850. He died at Southsea in 1872. His service record can be found at The National Archives under the reference ADM 196/1/281. A memorial to his widow is in the church of St. Nicholas at Wickham in Hampshire.