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 ...

William Caldwell (died 1718) 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 briefly served as Commander-in-Chief, The Thames from 12 November 1717 to 1 December 1717.

Naval career

Promoted to

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 ...

in January 1694, Caldwell commanded, successively, the

sixth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...

, the sixth-rate , the

fourth-rate In 1603 all English warships with a compliment of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers a six tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided i ...

, the fourth-rate , the forth-rate , the

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third r ...

and the third-rate . He saw action at the battle of Málaga in August 1704 and briefly served as Commander-in-Chief, The Thames from 12 November 1717 to 1 December 1717. Caldwell married Catherine Nanfan, daughter of

Bridges Nanfan Bridges Nanfan (baptised 25 March 1623 – 4 June 1704) was an English politician, MP for Worcester and Worcestershire. Nanfan was the son of John Nanfan of Birtsmorton, Worcestershire and his wife Mary, daughter of Edward Fleet alias Waldegrave ...

Birtsmorton Court Birtsmorton Court is a Grade I listed fortified medieval moated manor house near Malvern in Worcestershire, in the former woodlands of Malvern Chase. It is located in Birtsmorton, a small agricultural parish 7 miles south-east of Malvern Wel ...

in 1702. After his death in 1718, a memorial to Caldwell was erected in the church at Birtsmorton in Worcestershire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, William 1718 deaths Royal Navy rear admirals