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 Robert Stopford (5 February 1768 – 25 June 1847) 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 and politician whose career spanned over 60 years, from the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

to the Egyptian–Ottoman War.

Naval career

Stopford was the third son of James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown, and his wife Mary (née Powys). He joined the

in 1780 and became a

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

in 1785.Robert Stopford at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> Commander Stopford was captain of between December 1789 and October 1790. In 1790 he was promoted to captain at the age of 22 and was briefly captain of HMS ''Lowestoffe''. Stopford fought at the Battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794, commanding the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

(32). During the battle ''Aquilon'' had the task of standing off and repeating the signals from the flagship. ''Aquilon'' also towed the ''Marlborough'' out of the line of fire when she was dismasted, for which Lord Howe thanked him personally.''United service Magazine'' (1847), p.639. One of Stopford's officers on ''Aquilon'' was

Francis Beaufort Sir Francis Beaufort ( ; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and naval officer who created the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale. Early life Francis Beaufort was descended from French Protestant Hugu ...

, the inventor of the Beaufort Wind-Scale. On 10 March 1796, Stopford was captain of the

fifth rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal N ...

frigate HMS ''Phaeton'', of 38 guns, when she engaged and captured the 20-gun French

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

''Bonne Citoyenne'' of Cape Finisterre. Stopford took her back to England as his prize. The Royal Navy then bought her in as HMS ''Bonne Citoyenne'', a

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 an ...

sloop of war. During his service in the Channel, ''Phaeton'' captured in all some 13 privateers and three vessels of war, as well as recovering numerous vessels that the French had taken. In 1799, Stopford was appointed captain of the 74-gun

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 ''Excellent'' in the Channel Fleet. He sailed ''Excellent'' to the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

where he hoisted a commodore's pennant and served for eight months as the Commander-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands Station in 1802. In 1803, Stopford became captain of the

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

(74), in Horatio Nelson's fleet. He became a Colonel of

Marines Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included Raid (military), raiding ashor ...

in November 1805 and received a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

for his conduct at the

Battle of San Domingo The Battle of San Domingo was a naval battle of the War of the Third Coalition fought on 6 February 1806 between squadrons of First French Empire, French and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British ships of the line off the southern ...

in 1806, while still in command of ''Spencer''. Stopford was wounded during the battle; he recovered, but the wound would plague him for the rest of his life. Robert Stopford

He took part in the British invasions of the Río de la Plata and Battle of Copenhagen of 1806–07, and attacked Rochefort in 1808. Stopford played an important part in the Battle of the Basque Roads. He was appointed to command HMS ''Caesar'' (80), with a squadron of two ships of the line and five frigates. On 23 February 1809 he fell in the four French frigates under the batteries of Sable d'Olonne, an action which left them disabled. Stopford continued his blockade until Lord Gambier chased a fleet of ten French sail of the line into the Basque Roads and assumed command. In the summer of 1809 he was called as a witness at the Court-martial of James, Lord Gambier which assessed whether Admiral Lord Gambier had failed to support Captain Lord Cochrane. Gambier was controversially cleared of all charges. In 1810, he sailed to South Africa to become Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope Station. He directed the operations that resulted in the capture of Java when on 8 August 1811, the Dutch settlement of Batavia capitulated to the British under Stopford and Lieutenant-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty. The British fleet consisted of some 100 vessels, including eight cruisers belonging to the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. He was appointed

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 ...

in 1827.

Stopford became Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom in 1834. His last active post, in his early seventies, was as commander-in-chief of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

fleet during the Syrian War against the forces of Mehemet Ali. As Vice Admiral on board (100) and subsequently , he was in command of the combined British, Turkish, and Austrian fleet during the bombardment of

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

on 3 November 1840. For his services in the Syrian War, Stopford was given the Freedom of the City of the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

and presented with a commemorative "freedom box". The ornate silver and oak box is part of the collection of the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

. The following year he became Governor of the Greenwich Hospital at

, with the rank of admiral. He is buried in Greenwich Hospital Cemetery. The cemetery was largely made into a pocket park in the late 19th century but his name is listed on the west face of the Officers' Monument in the centre of the park.

Family

Stopford married Mary, daughter of Robert Fanshawe, in 1809. Their eldest son, Robert Fanshawe Stopford (1811–1891), also rose to the rank of admiral, and their second son, James John Stopford (1817–1868), became a vice admiral. Stopford died in June 1847, aged 79. His wife survived him by almost twenty years and died in June 1866. He was one of the two Whig MPs for

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

in the United Kingdom parliament from 1806 to 1807.

References

, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Stopford, Robert 1768 births 1847 deaths Royal Navy admirals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Royal Navy personnel of the Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841) Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Second Degree Younger sons of earls

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

Commanders Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Ipswich UK MPs 1806–1807

Naval career

Family

See also

References