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 Ommanney Willes (19 June 1823 – 18 February 1901) 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 Fr ...

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 ...

Early life

Born at

Hythe, Hampshire Hythe () is a town near Southampton, Hampshire, England. It is located by the shore of Southampton Water, and has a ferry service connecting it to Southampton. Hythe has a small shopping area, a pier, and a marina for yachts. History The n ...

in 1823, Willes was the son of Captain George Willes, RN, by his wife Anne Lacon, daughter of Sir Edmund Lacon, Baronet. He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and joined the

in 1838.Sir George Willes at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref>

Naval career

Willes received his commission as Mate in 1842, and as

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 ...

in 1844, his early career being uneventful until the outbreak of 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 ...

, when he took part in the

bombardment of Odessa The Bombardment of Odessa was an action during the Crimean War in which a joint Anglo-French squadron of warships attacked the Russian port of Odessa. Background and formation On 6 April 1854, soon after the declaration of war by Britain and Fr ...

and of at

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

in 1854. In April that year he was promoted

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. ...

, and in May 1856

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 ...

. He was given command of the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed an ...

HMS ''Chesapeake'' in 1859, and of HMS ''Impérieuse'' in 1861. In both cases as Flag Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. In this capacity he took part in the Battle of the Taku Forts during the

Second Opium 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#Britain's imperial ...

. In 1864 he was made Captain of the

ironclad warship An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...

HMS ''Prince Consort''. He became Admiral-Superintendent at Devonport in 1876 and Commander-in-chief, China Station in 1881. His last post was as

in 1886. He retired in 1888.

Family

In 1855 he married Georgiana Matilda Josephine, daughter of William Joseph Lockwood and granddaughter of

Sir Mark Wood, 1st Baronet Sir Mark Wood, 1st Baronet (16 March 1750 – 6 February 1829) was a British army officer and engineer. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Milborne Port, Gatton and Newark. He received a baronetcy on 3 October 1808. Mark Wood was the eldes ...

. His younger brother was the cricketer Edmund Willes.The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, L. G. Pine, London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972, page 170

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Willes, George 1823 births 1901 deaths Royal Navy admirals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War People from New Forest District Royal Navy personnel of the Second Opium War

Early life

Naval career

Family

See also

References