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 The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the

East Indies Station The East Indies Station was a formation and command of the British Royal Navy. Created in 1744 by the Admiralty, it was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. Even in official documents, the term ''East Indies Station'' was ...

Naval career

Born the fourth son of Henry Vernon and Penelope Vernon (née Phillips) and educated at the

Royal Naval Academy The Royal Naval Academy was a facility established in 1733 in Portsmouth Dockyard to train officers for the Royal Navy. The founders' intentions were to provide an alternative means to recruit officers and to provide standardised training, educa ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, 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 A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

in 1743 during the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...

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 A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

. ''Poder'' was heavily damaged, and Vernon and others began

jury rig In maritime transport terms, and most commonly in sailing, jury-rigged is an adjective, a noun, and a verb. It can describe the actions of temporary makeshift running repairs made with only the tools and materials on board; and the subsequent r ...

ging 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 The naval Battle of Lagos took place between a British fleet commanded by Sir Edward Boscawen and a French fleet under Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran over two days in 1759 during the Seven Years' War. They fought south west of the Gulf of C� ...

on 18–19 August 1759. He went on to command successively , , , , and . Knighted in June 1773, he became

Commander-in-Chief, The Nore The Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Nore Station or Nore Command. The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Th ...

in 1775 and Commander-in-Chief of the

in 1776 and took part in an indecisive action off

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

on 10 August 1778 which at least forced the French fleet to retire to

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

, much booty and plunder having been seized by the British. Promoted to

rear-admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarded ...

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 Binfield is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 8,689. The village lies north-west of Bracknell, north-east of Wokingham, and south-east of Reading at the westernmost extremity of ...

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

Bibliography

External links

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