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 ...
Sir George Burlton
KCB (died 21 September 1815) was an officer of the
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 ...
during the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
.
Naval career
Burlton was commissioned as a
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 ...
on 15 September 1777
[David Bonner Smith, ]
The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815
'', cited in Simon Harrison,
Sir George Burlton
, accessed 18 December 2011 and in 1783 was in command of
HMS ''Camel'', 24.
[Rif Winfield, '']British Warships in the Age of Sail
''British Warships in the Age of Sail'' is a series of four books by maritime historian Rif Winfield comprising a historical reference work providing details of all recorded ships that served or were intended to serve in the (British) Royal Navy ...
1714-1792'', cited in Simon Harrison,
Sir George Burlton
, accessed 18 December 2011 He was made
Commander
Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain.
...
on 5 July 1794.
[
In March 1795 he was acting captain of the 32-gun frigate ''Lively'' when she captured the French corvette ''Tourtourelle'',][Joseph Haydn, ''The Book of Dignities'', 1851]
p. 298 col. 2
/ref> and he was promoted to post captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy.
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:
* Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...
on 16 March that year into the 74-gun
The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...
.[ Towards the end of 1796 he travelled to Cape Town. There in November he received command of the Dutch frigate ''Castor'', which the British had captured at the ]capitulation of Saldanha Bay
The Capitulation of Saldanha Bay was the surrender in 1796 to the British Royal Navy of a Dutch expeditionary force sent to recapture the Dutch Cape Colony. In 1794, early in the French Revolutionary Wars, the army of the French Republic overr ...
and renamed HMS ''Saldanha''. Burlton sailed her to Britain where she was paid off.
Subsequent commands included ''Success'', 32; ''Adamant'', 50; and ''Resolution'', 74,[ the last of which he commanded at the ]Battle of the Basque Roads
The Battle of the Basque Roads, also known as the Battle of Aix Roads ( French: ''Bataille de l'île d'Aix'', also ''Affaire des brûlots'', rarely ''Bataille de la rade des Basques''), was a major naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars, fought in t ...
in April 1809.[ In the summer of 1809 he was called as a witness at the ]Court-martial of James, Lord Gambier
The Court-martial of James, Lord Gambier, was a notorious British naval legal case during the summer of 1809, in which Admiral Lord Gambier requested a court-martial to examine his behaviour during the Battle of Basque Roads in April of the same ...
which assessed whether Admiral Lord Gambier
Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, (13 October 1756 – 19 April 1833) was a Royal Navy officer. After seeing action at the capture of Charleston, South Carolina, Charleston during the Ameri ...
had failed to support Captain Lord Cochrane at the battle. Gambier was controversially cleared of all charges.[Rif Winfield, ''British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817'', cited in Simon Harrison,]
Sir George Burlton
, accessed 18 December 2011 On 4 December 1813 he was made a Colonel of Marines
Colonel (Col) is a rank of the British Army and Royal Marines, ranking below brigadier, and above lieutenant colonel. British colonels are not usually field commanders; typically they serve as staff officers between field commands at battalion ...
.
On 13 February 1814 ''Boyne'' engaged the French ship-of-the-line ''Romulus
Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...
'', for which Burlton was commended by Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew
Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB (19 April 1757 – 23 January 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. His younger brother Is ...
. On 4 June 1814 Burlton was raised to flag rank
A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which the officer exercises command.
The term is used differently in different countries:
*In many countries ...
as a Rear-Admiral of the White
The Rear-Admiral of the White was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Rear-admiral of the red (see order of precedence below). Royal Navy officers currently holding the ranks of commodore, ...
and on 2 January 1815 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...
.
On 24 December 1814 Sir Samuel Hood
Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (12 December 1724 – 27 January 1816) was an admiral in the Royal Navy. As a junior officer he saw action during the War of the Austrian Succession. While in temporary command of , he drove a French ship ashore in ...
died. He had been Commander-in-Chief on 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 ...
and when the vacancy became known in England Sir George Burlton was appointed to succeed him.[''The United Service Magazine'', vol. 171]
p. 222
/ref> He hoisted his flag in HMS ''Cornwallis'', Captain John Bayley, on 10 January 1815. On the voyage out the American sloops-of-war USS ''Peacock'' and USS ''Hornet'' mistook the 74-gun ''Cornwallis'' for a merchant ship. ''Cornwallis'' pursued ''Hornet'' between 28 and 30 April without success, though ''Hornet'' was obliged to jettison all her guns and arms in order to escape.William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
, ''Naval History of Great Britain'', vol. 6
p. 387
George Sayer
George Sydney Benedict Sayer (1 June 1914 – 20 October 2005) was a teacher at Malvern College, trustee of the Lewis estate and probably best known for his biography of the author C. S. Lewis. in June 1815, but died at Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
on 21 September. Sayer resumed command until the arrival of Sir Richard King in 1816.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burlton, George
Royal Navy rear admirals
Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars
Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
18th-century births
1815 deaths