Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some 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, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...
Sir George Pocock or Pococke,
KB (6 March 1706 – 3 April 1792) was a
British officer of the
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 Fr ...
.
Family
Pocock was born in
Thames Ditton
Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred 12.2 miles (19.6 km) southwest of Charing Cross ...
in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...
, the son of
Thomas Pocock, a chaplain in the Royal Navy. His great grandfather was Rev. Dr. Laurence Pocock, Rector of
Brightwalton in
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...
,
and his ancestors had long been resident at adjoining
Chieveley
Chieveley is a village and large civil parish centred north of Newbury in Berkshire, close to the M4 motorway and A34 road. Chieveley services are within the parish.
Geography
A map of 1877 gave the area as . The landscape is of gently ro ...
in the same county.
Early career
George Pocock entered the navy in 1718, serving aboard under the patronage of his maternal uncle, Captain
Streynsham Master (1682–1724).
[Pocock, 2004] He became lieutenant in April 1725 and commander in 1733. In 1738 he was promoted to
post-captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:
* Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain ...
and granted command of the 20-gun . After serving in the West Indies he was sent to join the
Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, Rear-Admiral
Charles Watson, in 1754 as captain of the 58-gun .
[ Watson's squadron co-operated with ]Clive
Clive is a name. People and fictional characters with the name include:
People Given name
* Clive Allen (born 1961), English football player
* Clive Anderson (born 1952), British television, radio presenter, comedy writer and former barrister
* ...
in the conquest of Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
. In 1755 Pocock became rear-admiral, and was promoted to vice-admiral in 1756.
Command of British naval forces in Indian waters
On the death of Watson in 1757 Pocock took the command of the naval forces in the East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...
.[ In 1758 he was joined by ]Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
Charles Steevens (d. 1761), but the reinforcement only raised the squadron to seven small line-of-battle ships. War being now in progress between France and England the French sent a naval force from their islands in the Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
into the Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...
to the assistance of Pondicherry
Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
. To intercept the arrival of these reinforcements for the enemy now became the object of Pocock. The French force was indeed of less intrinsic strength than his own. Comte D'Aché who commanded it had to make up his line by including several Indiamen which were only armed merchant ships. Yet the number of the French was superior and Pocock was required by the practice of his time to fight by the old official fighting instructions. He had to bring his ships into action in a line with the enemy, and to preserve his formation while the engagement lasted.
All Pocock's encounters with D'Aché were indecisive. The first battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and for ...
, on 29 April 1758, failed to prevent the Frenchmen from reaching Pondicherry
Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
.[ After a second and more severe ]engagement
An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...
on 3 August, the French admiral returned to Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
, and when the monsoon set in Pocock went round to Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
. He was back early in spring, relieving the Siege of Madras, but the French admiral did not return to the Bay of Bengal until September. Again Pocock was unable to prevent his opponent from reaching Pondicherry, and a well-contested battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and for ...
between them on 10 September 1759 proved again indecisive. The French government was nearly bankrupt, and D'Aché could get no stores for his squadron. He was compelled to return to the islands, and the British were left in possession of the Coromandel and Malabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing ...
s. Pocock went home in 1760, and in 1761 was made a Knight of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...
and admiral.[
]
Later career
In 1762 he was appointed to the command of the naval forces in the combined expedition which took Havana. The siege, which began on 7 June and lasted till 13 August, was rendered deadly by the climate. The final victory was largely attributable to the vigorous and intelligent aid which Pocock gave to the troops. His share in the prize money was no less than £122,697. On his return to England Pocock is said to have been disappointed because another officer, Sir Charles Saunders, was chosen in preference to himself as a member of the Admiralty Board
The Admiralty Board is the body established under the Defence Council of the United Kingdom for the administration of the Naval Service of the United Kingdom. It meets formally only once a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is ...
, and to have resigned in consequence. It is certain that he resigned his commission in 1766. His memorial in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
, a statue of Britannia holding a thunderbolt, is by John Bacon and was erected in 1796.
In 1763 Pocock married Sophia Dent (1733–1767), the widow of his friend Commodore Digby Dent, daughter of George Francis Drake of Madras and step-daughter of George Morton Pitt
George Morton Pitt (1693 – 9 February 1756) was a Madras-born British politician and administrator who served as the President of Fort St George from 1730 to 1735.
Fort St George
George Morton hailed from the well-known Pitt family of England ...
who had inherited Pitt's house at Twickenham now known as Orleans House. Their son George (1765-1840) was created a baronet and their daughter Sophia (died 1811) married John 4th Earl Powlett.[Tom Pocock, 'Pocock, Sir George (1706–1792)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004]
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pocock, George
1706 births
1792 deaths
Military personnel from Surrey
Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath
Royal Navy admirals
People from Surrey
Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Plymouth
British MPs 1761–1768