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 Michael Seymour, GCB (3 December 1802 – 23 February 1887), 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 went on to be

Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Sir Thomas Williams's tenure, his succes ...

Naval career

Born the third son of Admiral

Sir Michael Seymour, 1st Baronet Sir Michael Seymour, 1st Baronet KCB (8 November 1768 – 9 July 1834) 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 fr ...

,Laughton, J. K.. "Seymour, Sir Michael (1802–1887)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004 ed.). Oxford University Press. . Michael Seymour entered the

in 1813. He was made

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 1822,

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. ...

in 1824 and was posted

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in 1826. From 1833 to 1835 he was captain of the

survey ship A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...

HMS ''Challenger'', and was wrecked in her off the coast of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. In 1841 he was given command of HMS ''Britannia'' and then of HMS ''Powerful''. In 1845 he took over HMS ''Vindictive''. From 1851 to 1854 he was Commodore Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard. In 1854 he served under Sir Charles Napier in the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral that same year and, when the Baltic campaign was resumed in 1855 under Admiral the Hon. Richard Dundas, Seymour was second in command. On 19 February 1856 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the

East Indies and China Station The Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China was a formation of the Royal Navy from 1831 to 1865. Its naval area of responsibility was the Indian Ocean and the coasts of China and its navigable rivers. The Commander-in-Chief was appointed in 1 ...

. Flying his flag in HMS ''Calcutta'', he conducted operations arising from the attack on the British coaster ''Arrow''. During the

Arrow War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

in China, he commanded the Battle of the Bogue in November 1856, helped destroy the Chinese fleet in the

Battle of Fatshan Creek The Battle of Fatshan Creek (佛山水道之戰) was a naval engagement fought between the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and the Cantonese fleet of Qing China on 1 June 1857. Rear-Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equ ...

in June 1857, captured Canton in December, and in 1858 he captured the forts on the Baihe (Hai River), compelling the Chinese government to consent to the

Treaty of Tientsin The Treaty of Tientsin, also known as the Treaty of Tianjin, is a collective name for several documents signed at Tianjin (then Postal Map Romanization, romanized as Tientsin) in June 1858. The Qing Empire, Qing dynasty, Russian Empire, Secon ...

. He was made GCB in 1859. He sat as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Member of Parliament for Devonport from 1859 to 1863. In 1863 he was made

, a post he held until 1866. He retired in 1870. Seymour Road in

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

was named after him.

Family

In 1829 he married Dorothy Knighton: they had a son and three daughters. He was the uncle of Sir

Edward Hobart Seymour Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, (30 April 1840 – 2 March 1929) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he served in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. He then took part in the sinking of the war-junks, the Battle of ...

, also a British admiral.

References

External links

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, Michael 1802 births 1887 deaths Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War Royal Navy personnel of the Second Opium War Michael Seymour UK MPs 1859–1865 Younger sons of baronets

Naval career

Family

Further reading

References

External links