Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Sir Edward Vernon (30 October 1723 – 16 June 1794) was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station.

Naval career

Born the fourth son of Henry Vernon and Penelope Vernon (née Phillips) and educated at the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, Vernon joined the Royal Navy in 1739 when he was appointed a

Volunteer-per-order Volunteer-per-order was a name for a rating for young boys in the Royal Navy for young gentlemen who were training to become officers. The rating was introduced by Samuel Pepys in 1676 and the recipient received £24 a year and a letter from the cro ...

on . He was promoted to lieutenant in 1743 during the War of the Austrian Succession and assigned to the 70-gun under Captain

Edward Hawke Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, KB, PC (21 February 1705 – 17 October 1781), of Scarthingwell Hall in the parish of Towton, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, was a Royal Navy officer. As captain of the third-rate , he took part in the Battle of ...

. Present at the Battle of Toulon in 1744 against a combined French and Spanish fleet, he and 22 other British seamen were sent by Hawke aboard the disabled enemy vessel ''Poder'' in order to secure her as a prize. ''Poder'' was heavily damaged, and Vernon and others began jury rigging masts in order to make her ready to sail. They neglected to observe a Spanish counter-attack and were captured. Vernon was returned to British service as part of a prisoner exchange, and in 1747 was appointed as commander of the

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

HMS ''Baltimore''. In 1753 he was promoted to captain of in 1753 and captain of in 1755. He went on to be captain of and was present at the destruction of the French Fleet at the Battle of Lagos on 18–19 August 1759. He went on to command successively , , , , and . Knighted in June 1773, he became Commander-in-Chief, The Nore in 1775 and Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station in 1776 and took part in an indecisive action off Pondicherry on 10 August 1778 which at least forced the French fleet to retire to Mauritius, much booty and plunder having been seized by the British. Promoted to rear-admiral in March 1779, he returned to England in 1781. He was promoted to vice-admiral in 1787 and

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

in 1794. A monument to Vernon was placed in All Saints Church, at Binfield in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Edward 1723 births 1794 deaths Royal Navy admirals