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 Culme-Seymour, 3rd Baronet, (13 March 1836 – 11 October 1920) was a senior
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. On 17 September 1880 he became 3rd Baronet, on the death of his father. The Culme-Seymours were relatives of the
Seymour
Seymour may refer to:
Places Australia
*Seymour, Victoria, a township
** Seymour railway station
* Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria
* Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria
* Se ...
family, his father having
added his wife's family name – Culme – to his own following her death.
Naval career
Culme-Seymour was born in
Northchurch
Northchurch is a village and civil parish in the River Bulbourne, Bulbourne valley in the county of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. It lies between the towns of Berkhamsted and Tring.
Situated on the Roman road Akeman Street, a major Northc ...
,
Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the River Bulbourne, Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which ...
13 March 1836, the son of Sir John Hobart Culme-Seymour, 2nd Baronet (1800–1880) and his wife Elizabeth Culme, daughter of Reverend Thomas Culme.
[Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008, 'SEYMOUR, Sir Michael Culme-’; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007] He entered the Navy in 1850,
[William Loney RN]
/ref> and in 1856 served as mate in , flagship of the East Indies squadron, which was involved in the Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or ''Arrow'' War, was fought between the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major ...
.[ The fleet was commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour (his uncle), while ''Calcutta'' was commanded by William King-Hall.][ On 25 May 1857 he was promoted to lieutenant, continuing to serve on ''Calcutta'' until 6 June 1859, when he was promoted again to commander.][ From 20 June 1861 to 16 August 1865 he commanded in the ]Mediterranean Fleet
The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between ...
.[ On 16 December 1865 he was promoted to captain.][
In December 1870 he commanded in the ]Channel Squadron
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and pa ...
.[ From 1874 to 1876 he was private secretary to ]First Lord of the Admiralty
First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...
, George Ward Hunt
George Ward Hunt (30 July 1825 – 29 July 1877) was a British statesman of the Conservative Party who was Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Admiralty in the first and second ministries of Benjamin Disraeli.
Early life
Hunt wa ...
.[ In 1876 he returned to the Mediterranean, commanding .][ In July 1877 he transferred to and took part in the 1878 passage of the ]Dardanelles
The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...
commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby.[
From 29 July 1879 to 9 May 1882 he was captain of ,][ which was the flagship of the officer commanding Portsmouth harbour, Admiral Alfred Phillips Ryder,][ at the end of which appointment he was promoted to rear-admiral.][ 1885 saw him as second in command of the Baltic squadron under Phipps Hornby during the ]Panjdeh Incident
The Panjdeh incident (spelled Penjdeh in older accounts, and known in Russian historiography as the battle of the Kushka) was an armed engagement between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire in 1885 that led to a diplomatic crisi ...
.[ From 5 July 1885 to 20 September 1887 he was commander in chief of the ]Pacific squadron
The Pacific Squadron of the United States Navy, established c. 1821 and disbanded in 1907, was a naval squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Developing from a small force protecting United States commerc ...
.[ He was promoted to vice-admiral on 19 June 1888][ and from 1890 he commanded the ]Channel Fleet
The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915.
History
Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history th ...
for two years.[
From 3 May 1893 to 10 November 1896 he was Commander in Chief, Mediterranean Fleet,][ replacing ]George Tryon
Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, (4 January 1832 – 22 June 1893) was a Royal Navy officer who died when his flagship collided with during manoeuvres off Tripoli, Lebanon.
Early life
Tryon was born at Bulwick Park, Northamptonshire, England ...
after the accidental sinking of in a collision. He was promoted to full admiral before taking up the command.
From 3 August 1897 to 3 October 1900 he was 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 ...
,[ and in March 1901 he was placed on the retired list.
In 1899 he was appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to ]Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
. He was re-appointed after the succession of the new King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910.
The second child ...
, in February 1901, but resigned from the position in April the same year.
In early 1901 Sir Michael was asked by King Edward King Edward may refer to:
Monarchs of England and the United Kingdom
* Edward the Elder (–924)
* Edward the Martyr (–978)
* Edward the Confessor (–1066)
* Edward I of England (1239–1307)
* Edward II of England (1284–1327)
* Edward III o ...
to take part in a special diplomatic mission to announce the King's accession to the governments of Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
, Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
, Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...
, and The Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
.
He was granted the honorary offices of Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom
Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom is an honorary office generally held by a senior Royal Navy admiral. The title holder is the official deputy to the Lord High Admiral, an honorary (although once operational) office which was vested in the S ...
and Lieutenant of the Admiralty
The Lieutenant of the Admiralty is a now honorary office generally held by a senior retired Royal Navy admiral. He is the official deputy to the Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom. He is appointed by the Sovereign on the nomination of the First ...
in July 1901, and kept these until his death.
He died at Oundle
Oundle () is a market town and civil parish on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 6,254 at the time of the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. It is north of London and south-wes ...
in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
in 1920.[
]
Family
He married 16 October 1866 Mary Georgina Watson, daughter of the Hon
Hon or HON may refer to:
People Given name
* Cho Hŏn (1544–1592), Joseon militia leader
* Ho Hon (1885–1951), North Korean politician
Surname
* Han (surname) (Chinese: 韩/韓), also romanized Hon
* Louis Hon (1924–2008), French fo ...
Richard Watson, MP (1800–1852) and granddaughter of the 2nd Lord Sondes. Lady Culme-Seymour died in 1912. They had three sons and two daughters.[
His eldest son, Sir Michael Culme-Seymour (1867–1925) succeeded him in the baronetcy, and was himself a senior naval officer.
His daughter Mary Elizabeth Culme-Seymour (1871-1944) married Vice Admiral Sir Trevylyan Napier.
His younger son, George Culme-Seymour (1878–1915) was a captain in the King's Royal Rifle Corps and served as Adjutant in the Queen Victoria's Rifles during the Great War. He was killed during the ]Second Battle of Ypres
The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April – 25 May 1915, during the First World War, for control of the tactically-important high ground to the east and the south of the Flanders, Flemish town of Ypres, in western Belgium. The ...
on 7 May 1915 leading a company from the QVRs over a trench barricade in an attempt to recapture Hill 60. He is remembered on the Menin Gate
The Menin Gate (), officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The m ...
in Ypres.
One of his daughters, it is not clear which, was alleged to have secretly married George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
George w ...
when he was a young naval officer. This long-standing rumour was eventually published by Edward Mylius
Edward Frederick Mylius (4 July 1878 – 24 January 1947) was a Belgian-born journalist jailed in England in 1911 for criminal libel after publishing a report that King George V of the United Kingdom was a bigamist.
Early life
Mylius was born ...
in November 1910. Sir Michael, Mary, and all three of his sons (but not his wife) testified at the trial in 1911. His younger daughter Laura had, by that time, died. The details of the accusation were proven to be false, and Mylius was jailed for criminal libel. However, an 1891 newspaper report later came to light, saying that Mary, who had claimed not to have met George V between 1879 and 1898, had in fact opened a ball at Portsmouth Town Hall on 21 August 1891 by dancing with him.
His great-great-granddaughter is comedian and actress Miranda Hart
Miranda Katherine Hart Dyke (born 14 December 1972) is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won three Royal Television Society awards, four British Comedy Awards, and four BAFTA nominations for her self-driven semi-autobiographical ...
.
References
*
* Pfarr, Victor (1899). . G. Routledge. p. 262.
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Culme-Seymour, Michael
1836 births
1920 deaths
3
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Lords of the Admiralty
Military personnel from Hertfordshire
People from Berkhamsted
Royal Navy admirals
Royal Navy personnel of the Second Opium War
Michael Seymour
20th-century Royal Navy personnel