[1][b] He spent five years aboard Solebay, rising to the rank of midshipman, and spending time under George Vandeput.

He passed his lieutenant's examination on 10 January 1776 and received his promotion to that rank on 6 August 1777, moving aboard HMS Valiant.

[1] In November that year Westcott moved aboard HMS Victory, then the flagship of Rear-Admiral Richard Kempenfelt.

When London was paid off in late 1791, Westcott went onto half-pay until becoming Rear-Admiral Benjamin Caldwell's flag captain aboard HMS Impregnable in September 1793.

[1] When Nelson located the French fleet at anchor at Aboukir Bay, he quickly ordered the British into the attack.

A monument to his memory, sculpted by Thomas Banks, was erected in St Paul's Cathedral, and another in the church in his birthplace at Honiton.

"[3] On 17 January 1801 he wrote to Lady Hamilton: At Honiton I visited Captain Westcott's mother – poor thing, except from the bounty of government and Lloyd's, in very low circumstances.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography suggests he was born around 1745, but Westcott's memorial in St Paul's Cathedral describes him as 46 at the time of his death in 1798, and parish records from Honiton indicate that he was baptised on 24 April 1753.