He was born on the coast of Hampshire, the eldest of the two sons of Robert Faulknor captain of HMS Bellona, and his wife, Elizabeth Ashe.

His paternal grandfather had served as flag captain under Admiral John Balchen on HMS Victory the predecessor to its more famous namesake and went down with his ship and 100 men in a shipwreck on 4 October 1744.

[1] Sometime after that the family moved to Dijon, France, where they stayed until Robert the elder died there on 9 May 1769, when his widow and the children returned to Southampton.

After the outbreak of war, in June 1793, he was placed as commander of the 16-gun sloop-of-war HMS Zebra, firstly stationed in the English Channel and then - through his mother's lobbying of Lord Chatham - attached to Sir John Jervis's expedition to the West Indies.

This appeared due to a former French officer on board, who was familiar with Fort Royal, being in charge of the piloting - Lt. de Tourelles.

[4] He came closer to the fort than originally planned, and using ladders of bamboo scaled its walls at the head of his men and had a lucky escape when a wooden cartouche (powder cartridge) box strapped to his waist was struck by grapeshot but left him unharmed.

[5] The main gate was easily forced and within seven minutes they reached the upper platform of the fortress, causing the governor to surrender.

As the Zebra passed the stern of the Boyne to go back to its position in the fleet, Jervis's band played See, the Conqu'ring Hero Comes and the whole crew cheered his actions.

This in domino effect brought about the surrender of Fort Bourbon by General Rochambeau, and from that the capture of the entire island of Martinique.

He then took command of the slightly heavier frigate HMS Blanche (32 guns) several months later, (as the expedition moved to attack the island of Guadeloupe).

Waiting for his court martial, he wrote to Lieutenant Hill of Zebra that he was less concerned "for my own fate, than [for] that of being accessory to the death of any human being not the natural enemy of myself or my country ... the hasty and sudden punishment I unhappily inflicted on the spot will be a source of lasting affliction to my mind.