John Aubin

Commissioner from 3 December 1808 to 20 February 1822 (forcibly retired).

He had been a purser, then secretary to Lord Howe and attended him at the Spithead mutiny in 1797; clerk of the survey at Deptford dockyard, storekeeper at Chatham dockyard (1803 to 1808). He had a total of forty years’ service and was one of the commissioners removed in 1822 as a result of the scandal following Sir George Cockburn’s investigation. He had by this time suffered an attack of ‘the palsy’ and was mentally incapacitated. Originally awarded a pension of £200 p.a. (a quarter of his salary) he appealed and this was increased to £300.

William Boscawen

Commissioner from 19 December 1785 to 4 May 1811 (died).

He was the son of General the Hon. George Boscawen (Admiral Edward Boscawen’s younger brother). He had attended Eton school, then Exeter College Oxford, and was a Barrister on the Western circuit before joining the Victualling Board. His obituary in the Naval Chronicle said that he was ‘An excellent scholar, good poet – his translation of Horace esteemed the best English version in point of spirit and accuracy’.

Nicholas Brown

Commissioner from 3 December 1808 to 10 June 1830 (died).

He spent eighteen years as a purser, then as secretary to Admiral Keith (during which time he spent some months as a peripatetic agent victualler to Keith’s fleet during the Alexandria campaign). Whilst with Keith, he was one of the people accused by captains Alexander Cochrane and Benjamin Hallowell of overcharging for a purchase of seamen’s shoes.

William Budge

Commissioner from 3 May 1805 to 3 December 1808 (forcibly retired, ill-health).

He served as a clerk to the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade and Plantations (predecessor of the Board of Trade) from 25 August 1786 to 10 December 1794 when he resigned and took up the position of clerk in the office of the Secretary of State for War (Henry Dundas, later Lord Melville). He is also shown as a clerk in the Colonial Office from 11 July 1794 to 10 April 1805, then resigning to take up the post as a victualling commissioner (and also as joint private secretary to the Secretary of State for War from 5 July 1797 to 17 March 1801); and as private secretary to the First Lord of The Admiralty (Lord Melville) from 12 July 1804 to 8 May 1805.