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 ...

Charles Buckner (c. 1735–1811) 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 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 ...

. He was the brother of John Buckner, Bishop of Chichester, and grandfather of portraitist Richard Buckner.

Early life

Charles Buckner was christened in the parish of

Boxgrove Boxgrove is a village, parish, ecclesiastical parish and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of the English county of West Sussex, about north east of the city of Chichester. The village is ...

, Sussex in 1735, the son of Richard Buckner, steward to the

Duke of Richmond Duke of Richmond is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created four times in British history. It has been held by members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families. The current dukedom of Richmond was created in 1675 for Charles ...

, and Mary, née Saunders. He married Mary Parke in 1763 and they had three children, Charles, Mary, and Richard. After his first wife's death, he married Anne Frewen, who was a great aunt of celebrated engineer

Fleeming Jenkin Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (; 25 March 1833 – 12 June 1885) was a British engineer, inventor, economist, linguist, actor and dramatist known as the inventor of the cable car or Aerial tramway#Telpherage, t ...

, as recounted in

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

's ''Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin'' (1888). Stevenson describes him as "that tall, rough-voiced, formidable uncle" who "was no enemy of dunces; he loved courage". In addition to his naval career, he was mayor of

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

in 1784 and an alderman of the city afterward.

Naval career

Not long after passing the lieutenant's examination, Lieutenant Buckner participated in the 1756 Battle of Minorca as a 4th lieutenant on and gave an account of the battle in his testimony at the subsequent court martial of Admiral

John Byng Admiral (Royal Navy), Admiral John Byng (baptised 29 October 1704 – 14 March 1757) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who was court-martialled and executed by firing squad. After joining the navy at the age of thirteen, he participate ...

. Buckner became commanding officer of 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). Rating When the rating system was f ...

HMS ''Prothee'' in 1780. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, he captured the American privateer frigates ''Scourge'' and ''Rhodes'' in February 1782 and then saw action at the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

in April 1782. He went on to be commanding officer of the third-rate later in 1782 and commanding officer of the royal yacht in 1787. He became

in April 1795 and was in command during the

Spithead and Nore mutinies The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. They were the first in an increasing series of outbreaks of maritime radicalism in the Atlantic World. Despite their temporal proximity, the mutinies ...

in 1797. The first round of negotiations, led by Buckner for the Navy, failed dismally with Buckner being threatened with a broadside attack from the third-rate which was being held by the mutineers. The mutiny ultimately failed and the ring leaders were hanged. Under the seniority-based promotion system of the Royal Navy then in effect, Buckner was eventually promoted to Admiral of the Red in 1808, the second highest-ranking officer in the Navy at the time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckner, Charles 1811 deaths People from Boxgrove Royal Navy admirals Mayors of Chichester 1730s births Military personnel from West Sussex Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars