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 Michael Seymour, GCB (3 December 1802 – 23 February 1887) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

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 Thomas Williams (Royal Navy officer), Si ...

Naval career

Born the third son of Admiral

Sir Michael Seymour, 1st Baronet Rear admiral (Royal Navy), Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, 1st Baronet Order of the Bath, KCB (8 November 1768 – 9 July 1834) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the French Revolutionary Wars, French Revolutionary and the ...

,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 Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

in 1822,

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 ...

in 1824 and was posted

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

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 pu ...

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

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. 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 originatin ...

during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. 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. Flying his flag in HMS ''Calcutta'', he conducted operations arising from the attack on the British coaster ''Arrow''. During the Arrow War in China, he commanded the Battle of the Bogue in November 1856, helped destroy the Chinese fleet in the Battle of Fatshan Creek 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 Unequal treaty, unequal treaties signed at Tianjin (then Postal Map Romanization, romanized as Tientsin) in June 1858. The Qing Empire, Qing dynasty, ...

. He was made GCB in 1859. He sat as a Liberal 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 island in the southern part of Hong Kong. The island, known originally and on road signs simply as "Hong Kong", had a population of 1,289,500 and a population density of , . It is the second largest island in Hong Kon ...

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, also a British admiral.

Art work

File:1846 July 30, to New York from Raritan River LCCN2005693021.jpg, ''1846 July 30, to New York from Raritan River'' File:Michael Seymour - Approaching La Guaira, Venezuela.jpg, ''Approaching La Guaira, Venezuela''

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

Art work

Further reading

References

External links