Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many 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. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

Sir John Gore, KCB (9 February 1772,

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the City status in Ir ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

– 21 August 1836,

Datchet Datchet is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, on the north bank of the River Thames. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Buckinghamshire, and the Stoke Hundred, the vi ...

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) was a British naval commander of the 18th and 19th centuries. His father was Colonel John Gore.

Naval career

Gore joined the Royal Navy in August 1781, as a captain's servant, and would have served as a midshipman, before gaining promotion to lieutenant on 26 November 1789 and

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

on 24 May 1794. The Royal Navy had just captured the French corvette ''Fleche'' at the capture of Bastia, in which Gore had played a significant role and had been injured. The Navy took the corvette into service as HMS ''Fleche'' and commissioned her under Gore. He fitted her out and sailed her to Malta where he negotiated with the

Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller This is a list of grand masters of the Knights Hospitaller, including its continuation as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta after 1798. It also includes unrecognized "anti-grand masters" and lieutenants or stewards during vacancies. In lists ...

Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc Fra' Emmanuel Marie des Neiges de Rohan-Polduc (18 April 1725, in La Mancha, Spain – 14 July 1797, in Valletta, Malta) was a member of the wealthy and influential Rohan family of France, and Prince and 70th Grand Master of the Order of St. J ...

for seamen, supplies, and the like. On 13 September Gore was a witness at the trial of Lieutenant William Walker, commander of the hired armed

cutter Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Cutter (hydraulic rescue tool) * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Pizza cutter * Side cutter People * Cutter (surname) * Cutt ...

''Rose'', on charges that Walker had accepted money from merchants at Bastia to convoy their vessels to Leghorn, where the court martial took place. Walker was acquitted. Gore received promotion to

post captain Post-captain or post captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term "post-captain" was descriptive only; it was never used as a title in the form "Post-Captain John Smith". The term served to di ...

on 14 November 1794. When in command of , he took part in the successful

Action of 16 October 1799 The action of 16 October 1799 was a minor naval engagement during the War of the Second Coalition between a squadron of Royal Navy frigates and two frigates of the Spanish Navy close to the naval port of Vigo in Galicia. Both Spanish ships were ...

, in which two Spanish frigates were captured and more than 2 million silver dollars taken. While commanding the 32-gun frigate HMS ''Medusa'', he took part in the

action of 5 October 1804 The Battle of Cape Santa Maria was a naval engagement that took place off the southern Portuguese coast, in which a British squadron under the command of Commodore Graham Moore attacked and defeated a Spanish squadron commanded by Brigadier D ...

. Promoted to rear-admiral on 4 December 1813, he became

Commander-in-Chief, The Nore The Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Nore Station or Nore Command. Nore, The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of t ...

from 1818 to 1821. Promoted to

vice-admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...

on 27 May 1825, he served as Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station from 1831 to 1834.

Family

On 15 August 1808, at

St George's, Hanover Square St George's, Hanover Square, is an Church of England, Anglican church, the parish church of Mayfair in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London ...

, he married Georgiana Montagu, daughter of Admiral Sir George Montagu and Charlotte Wroughton. The couple had four children: *Lieutenant John Gore (d. 1835) *Hon. Georgiana Stuart Gore (d. 18 July 1877) *Anne Gore (d. 23 July 1877) – the mother of

Assheton Gore Curzon-Howe Admiral Sir Assheton Gore Curzon-Howe (10 August 1850 – 1 March 1911) was a British naval officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1908 to 1910. Early life Curzon-Howe was the thirteenth and youngest child of ...

. *Maria Gore (d. 8 March 1902)

Popular culture

In fiction, he appears in CS Forester's ''

Hornblower and the Hotspur ''Hornblower and the Hotspur'' (published 1962) is a Horatio Hornblower novel written by C. S. Forester. It is the third book in the series chronologically, but the tenth by order of publication, and serves as the basis for one of the episodes ...

'' and in MC Muir's ''Admiralty Orders'' as the ''Medusas captain. In the latter book the action of 5 October 1804 is described. His surviving portrait, which is in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, has been attributed to the artist

John Westbrooke Chandler John Westbrooke Chandler (1763/4 – 1807) was a British painter and poet. Biography Chandler was the natural son of the Earl of Warwick, presumed to be George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1784 at ...

.https://adamfineart.wordpress.com/2019/05/20/capitano-magnifico-a-portrait-of-sir-john-gore/ A. Busiakiewicz, 'Capitano Magnifico – A portrait of Sir John Gore'

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gore, John Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars British naval commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Military personnel from County Kilkenny Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath 1772 births 1836 deaths Irish officers in the Royal Navy

Naval career

Family

Popular culture

See also

References