Admiral Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour, 1st Baron Alcester, (12 April 1821 – 30 March 1895) was a British naval commander. He was Commander-in-Chief of the
Channel Fleet between 1874 and 1877 and of the
Mediterranean Fleet between 1880 and 1883.
Background
Seymour was the son of
Colonel Sir Horace Seymour and a cousin of the
5th Marquess of Hertford.
He was a great-grandson of the
1st Marquess of Hertford.
Naval career
Seymour entered 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 ...
in 1834, and served in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
and the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
, and was for three years
aide-de-camp to his uncle
Sir George Seymour, and was promoted to
commander in 1847. He also served in
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. He was the Commander-in-Chief of the
Australia Station
The Australia Station was the British, and later Australian, naval command responsible for the waters around the Australian continent.Dennis et al. 2008, p.53. Australia Station was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station, ...
from 10 March 1860 and 21 July 1862 as Commodore second class with his pennant aboard . He commanded the
Naval Brigade in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
during the
New Zealand Wars
The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the ...
of 1860–61, and was made a
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for this.
From 1868 to 1870 Seymour served as
private secretary
A private secretary (PS) is a civil servant in a governmental department or ministry, responsible to a secretary of state or minister; or a public servant in a royal household, responsible to a member of the royal family.
The role exists in ...
to the First Lord of the Admiralty,
Hugh Childers
Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (25 June 1827 – 29 January 1896) was a British Liberal statesman of the nineteenth century. He is perhaps best known for his reform efforts at the Admiralty and the War Office. Later in his career, as Chancello ...
, and was promoted to Rear-Admiral. From 1870 to 1872 he commanded the flying squadron. In 1872, he became a
Fourth Naval Lord for two years, and then commander of the
Channel Fleet. He became a
vice-admiral on 31 December 1876, and was appointed
KCB in June 1877, and was promoted to GCB on 24 May 1881. From 1880 to 1883 he was
Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, and from 1883 to 1885 he was
Second Naval Lord. He became an
admiral in May 1882.
He was created Baron Alcester (pronounced "Allster"), of
Alcester
Alcester () is a market town and civil parish of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England, approximately west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Reddit ...
in the
County of Warwick
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, on 24 November 1882 for his command of the
bombardment of Alexandria
The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882.
Admiral Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which had previously sailed to the harbor of ...
and in the subsequent operations on the coast of Egypt. He was also honoured with a parliamentary grant of £25,000, the
Freedom of the City of London
The Freedom of the City of London started around 1237 as the status of a 'free man' or 'citizen', protected by the charter of the City of London and not under the jurisdiction of a feudal lord. In the Middle Ages, this developed into a freedom o ...
and a Sword of Honour.
Personal life
Lord Alcester never married. He died 30 March 1895, aged 73, when his peerage became extinct.
In his will he left the balance of his estate to Agnes Sinclair for her lifetime. On her death, two fifths were left to Frederick Charles Horace Sinclair and one fifth each to
Hugh Francis Paget Sinclair, Claude Sinclair and Evelyn Sinclair.
[Berrow's Worcester Journal (Worcester, England), Saturday, 18 May 1895; pg. 2; Issue 10517]
See also
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References
*
;Attribution
*
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcester, Beauchamp Seymour, 1st Baron
1821 births
1895 deaths
Royal Navy admirals
Royal Navy personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War
Royal Navy personnel of the New Zealand Wars
Military leaders of the New Zealand Wars
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
Military personnel from London
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Lords of the Admiralty
Beauchamp Seymour, 1st Baron Alcester
Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria