David Collins

Colonel David Collins (3 March 1756 – 24 March 1810) was a British Marine officer who was appointed as Judge-Advocate to the new colony being established in Botany Bay. He sailed with Governor Arthur Phillip on the First Fleet to establish a penal colony at what is now Sydney. He became secretary to the first couple of Governors, later being appointed to start a secondary colony where he founded the city of Hobart as the founding Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land (later becoming the state of Tasmania). Early life and military career David Collins was born 3 March 1756 in London, the third and oldest surviving child of Arthur Tooker Collins (1718–1793), an officer of marines (later major-general) and Henrietta Caroline (died 1807) of King's County, Ireland. His grandfather Arthur Collins (1684–1760) was author of Collins's Peerage of England. The family lived in Saffron Hill, London, until 1765 when they moved to Devon after his father as a lieutenant colonel was made commandant of the Plymouth division of marines. Collins was educated at Exeter Grammar School, before at the age of 14 joining the marines as an ensign in his fathers division. He was promoted second lieutenant on 20 February 1771. In 1772 Collins was serving aboard the frigate when it was sent to Denmark to retrieve King George III's sister Queen Caroline Matilda after she was banished from Denmark for an illicit romance. American Revolutionary War In March 1775, Collins sailed to Boston, Massachusetts, with two battalions of marines, to help the Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Gage reinforce the town. Collins was named second lieutenant to Captain Thomas Lindsay in the third company of the First Battalion of Marines. On 17 June, Collins took part in General William Howe's bayonet charge and capture of Breed's Hill in the Battle of Bunker Hill to hold the heights of Charlestown. He was promoted to first lieutenant the following week.