Watkins tench biography of michael

Royal Marines officer (1758–1833)

Lieutenant GeneralWatkin Tench (6 October 1758 – 7 May 1833) was a British military officer who is best known for publishing two books describing his experiences in the First Fleet, which established the first European settlement in Australia in 1788.

His two accounts, Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson provide an account of the arrival and first four years of the colony.^[1]

Early life and career

Tench was born on 6 October 1758 at Chester in the county of Cheshire, England, a son of Fisher Tench, a dancing master who ran a boarding school in the town and Margaritta Tarleton of the Liverpool Tarletons.^[2] Watkin was a cousin to the politician Banastre Tarleton.

His father appears to have named Watkin after a wealthy local landowner, Watkin Williams Wynn, whose family probably assisted in starting Tench's military career.

Tench joined