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 George Lambart Atkinson-Willes (13 July 1847 – 25 December 1921) 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, East Indies Station.

Naval career

Educated at Leamington College and at Burney's Royal Naval Academy in

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

,The County Families of the United Kingdom or Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, Volume ed.59, yr.1919
/ref> he joined the

as a cadet in 1861Royal Navy Flag Officers 1904-1945
/ref> and took part in the

Abyssinian Expedition The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire (also known at the time as Abyssinia). Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, t ...

in 1868 where he was second in command of the naval rocket brigade. Promoted to Captain in 1886, he commanded , , , and then . He was appointed

commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore, a ...

commanding the Training Squadron in 1895 and then commanded the Dockyard Reserve at

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

from 1898. In 1901 he assumed the additional surname of Willes in compliance with the will of his uncle Admiral Sir George Ommanney Willes. Later the same year he was 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 regarde ...

, and in May 1902 he became Second-in-Command of the

Home Fleet The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet. Before the First ...

. He hoisted his flag on board the

pre-dreadnought battleship Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, prote ...

on 7 May 1902, as his flagship during the Coronation Fleet Review for King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

. After the end of the manoeuvres, he transferred on 16 September to , which became

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

to the Home Squadron, the permanent sea-going nucleus of the Home Fleet. In 1903 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station. He led a squadron of three ships during the Somaliland Campaign in 1904, supplying landing parties that stormed and captured the forts at Illig, his ships' guns supporting the attack."The capture of the forts at Illig from the Mad Mullah, 21 April 1904", Paul G Lane. ''Orders & Medals Research Society Journal'' (Volume 59, number 2) June 2020. pp 152-156. In June 1905 in recognition of his service in Somaliland 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 ...

. Atkinson-Willes was promoted vice admiral in 1905 and admiral in 1908. He retired in July 1912 and died in December 1921, aged 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson-Willes, George 1847 births 1921 deaths Royal Navy admirals Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath