Sir Edward Whitaker (1660 – 20 November 1735) was an officer of the

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 ...

. He served during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

and is known for his role in the

Capture of Gibraltar The capture of Gibraltar by Anglo-Dutch forces of the Grand Alliance occurred between 1 and 4 August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Since the beginning of the war the Alliance had been looking for a harbour in the Iberian Penins ...

and the Battle of Málaga in 1704.

Life

Edward Whitaker was born in 1660. He joined the

and he was promoted to a lieutenant of on 16 October 1688 under Matthew Aylmer. The following year the two of them had moved to and on 15 May 1690 Whitaker became captain of his first command, the 44-gun . For three years he and his crew captured many French

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

s and supporting prize money. On 27 September 1692 he married Ann Stephens of

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staffor ...

on Essex.J. K. Laughton, 'Whitaker, Sir Edward (1660?–1735)’, rev. J. D. Davies, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
retrieved 27 April 2013
/ref> In 1693 he returned to support Aylmer who was now an admiral and he was his

flag-captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a " captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "Firs ...

in HMS ''Royal Sovereign''. 1695 to 1696 he had a confusing command looking after , and with the honour of also being Sir Cloudesley Shovell's flag-captain in HMS ''Victory''. In 1698 he was not at sea but living in

Leigh-on-Sea Leigh-on-Sea (), commonly referred to simply as Leigh, is a List of towns in England, town and civil parish within the city of Southend-on-Sea, located in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. In 2011 it had a population of 22,509. Geograph ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, but by May of the following year he had a new command in . On 13 January 1702 fifty ships were commissioned on one day and Whitaker briefly was given before he became master-attendant at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

. At the start of 1702 he very briefly commanded before he took up the command that was to make his name. Whitaker commanded as part of the fleet under

George Rooke Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke (1650 – 24 January 1709) was an Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and again at the Battle of Schooneveld duri ...

in 1704.

Capture of Gibraltar

During the 1704 Capture of Gibraltar Whitaker was Sir George Byng's aide-de-camp. 'his ship not being upon service,’ Whitaker commanded a successful attack on Gibraltar and it was Whitaker who regained command when the successful attackers were confused into a retreat when a Spanish magazine exploded. Two of his captains had led this attack whilst Whitaker was trying to get authority for the attack from Byng.

William Jumper Sir William Jumper ( – 12 March 1715) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He rose to the rank of captain after service in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession. He is known for being one of the first to step onto land du ...

was mentioned particularly by Whitaker and a he was later honoured by having Jumper's Bastion named after him. Amongst the attacking group was which was commanded by Whitaker's brother Samuel.

Later actions

In the Battle of Málaga on 24 August 1704 Whitaker was still in command of the ''Dorsetshire'' and was at the centre of the action. In 1705 Whitaker commanded and in the first few months of 1706 he became Sir Edward Whitaker, rear-admiral of the blue, commanding a squadron of ships in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

escorting the

Duke of Marlborough General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was a British army officer and statesman. From a gentry family, he ...

to Holland in April. In 1708, with his Admiral's flag in , he went to join Sir John Leake in the Mediterranean where he assisted at the capture of Minorca, taking Fort Fornelle and Fort Ciudadella. Whitaker became a vice-admiral of the blue after he took over Leake's command. On 14 November 1709 he was made vice-admiral of the white. In January 1708 Sir George Byng took over as commander in chief in the Mediterranean with Whitaker as second in command, until Byng went back to England in 1709. Whitaker returned in 1710 and married again, as his first wife had died in 1705. He went on to take a significant role in the occupation of

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

in 1712. He retired, and in 1713 moved from Number 25

Soho Square Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London, hosting since 1954 a ''de facto'' public park leasehold estate, let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was originally called King Square after Charles II of Engla ...

to Number 36. Whitaker died on 20 November 1735 at

Carshalton Carshalton ( ) is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated around southwest of Charing Cross and around east by north of Sutton town centre, in the valley of the Rive ...

in Surrey, where he was buried.

Legacy

The Royal Navy named two ships . The first was a destroyer ordered towards the end of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

but later cancelled; the second was a frigate in service during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Edward 1660 births 1735 deaths Royal Navy admirals British naval commanders in the War of the Spanish Succession