James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier
The Lord Gambier | |
---|---|
Born | New Providence, The Bahamas | 13 October 1756
Died | 19 April 1833 Iver, Buckinghamshire, England | (aged 76)
Buried | St. Peter's churchyard in Iver |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | Royal Navy |
Years of service | 1767–1833 |
Rank | Admiral of the Fleet |
Commands held | HMS Thunder HMS Raleigh HMS Endymion HMS Defence |
Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars |
Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath |
Gambier went on to be a
Early career
Born the second son of John Gambier, the
Gambier entered the Navy in 1767 as a midshipman on board the
In February 1793 following the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, Gambier was appointed to command the 74-gun third-rate HMS Defence under Lord Howe. By faith an evangelical, he was regarded as an intensely religious man, nicknamed Dismal Jimmy, by the men under his command.[4] As captain of the Defence Gambier saw action at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794, gaining the distinction of commanding the first ship to break through the enemy line and subsequently receiving the Naval Gold Medal.[6]
Senior command
Gambier was appointed to the
Gambier then returned to the Admiralty as a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty and First Naval Lord on the Admiralty Board led by Viscount Melville when the second Pitt ministry was formed in May 1804.[7][8] Promoted to full admiral on 9 November 1805,[12] Gambier left the Admiralty in February 1806.[6] He returned briefly for a third tour as First Naval Lord on the Admiralty Board led by Lord Mulgrave when the Second Portland Ministry was formed in April 1807.[6][8]
In May 1807 Gambier volunteered to command the naval forces, with his flag in the second-rate HMS Prince of Wales, sent as part of the campaign against Copenhagen during the Napoleonic Wars. Together with General Lord Cathcart, he oversaw the bombardment of Copenhagen from 2 September until the Danes capitulated after three days (an incident that brought Gambier some notoriety in that the assault included a bombardment of the civilian quarter). Prizes included eighteen ships of the line, twenty-one frigates and brigs and twenty-five gunboats together with a large quantity of naval stores[13] for which he received official thanks from Parliament, and on 3 November 1807 a peerage, becoming Baron Gambier, of Iver in the County of Buckingham.[14]
Battle of the Basque Roads
In 1808 Gambier was appointed to command the Channel Fleet. In April 1809 he chased a squadron of French ships that had escaped from Brest into the Basque Roads. He called a council of war in which Lord Cochrane was given command of the inshore squadron, and who subsequently led the attack. Gambier refused to commit the Channel Fleet after Cochrane's attack, using explosion vessels that encouraged the French squadron to warp further into the shallows of the estuary. This action resulted in the majority of the French fleet running aground at Rochefort.[2]
Gambier was content with the blockading role played by the offshore squadron. Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, who had commanded "Fighting Temeraire" at the Battle of Trafalgar, believed they had missed an opportunity to inflict further damage upon the French fleet. He told Gambier "I never saw a man so unfit for the command of a fleet as Your Lordship." Cochrane threatened to use his parliamentary vote against Gambier in retaliation for not committing the fleet to action. Gambier called for a court martial to examine his conduct. The court martial, on 26 July 1809 on Gladiator in Portsmouth, exonerated Gambier. Consequently, neither Harvey nor Cochrane were appointed by the Admiralty to command for the remainder of the war.[15] The episode had political and personal overtones. Gambier was connected by family and politics to the Tory prime minister William Pitt. In Parliament, Cochrane represented the constituency of Westminster, which tended to vote Radical. In the aftermath of Basque Roads, Cochrane and Gambier quarreled and Gambier excluded Cochrane from the battle dispatches. Cochrane took the unusual move of standing in opposition to parliament's pro forma vote of thanks to Gambier.[16][17]
Later career
In 1814 Gambier was part of the team negotiating the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States.[18] He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 7 June 1815.[19] Promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 22 July 1830,[20] he died at his home, Iver Grove in Buckinghamshire, on 19 April 1833 and was buried at St. Peter's churchyard in Iver.[18]
Legacy
Gambier was a founding benefactor of
Personal life
In July 1788 Gambier married Louisa Mathew, daughter of Daniel Mathew, 1718–1777, of Felix Hall, Kelvedon, Essex and St Kitts, West Indies, and Mary Elizabeth Byam, 1729–1814; they had no children.[1]
Arms
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See also
References
- ^ a b "James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- ^ a b c d Tracy, 2006, p. 148
- ^ "Chatterton, Henrietta Georgiana Marcia Lascelles, Lady Chatterton". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- ^ a b c Heathcote, p. 94
- ^ Tracy, N, 2006, p. 149
- ^ a b c d Heathcote, p. 95
- ^ a b c "Sainty, JC, Lord High Admiral and Commissioners of the Admiralty 1660–1870, Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 4: Admiralty Officials 1660–1870 (1975)". pp. 18–31. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- ^ a b c Rodger, p. 69
- ^ "No. 15107". The London Gazette. 12 February 1799. p. 147.
- ^ "James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier". Government House, Newfoundland. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- ^ "Iver Grove". Parksand Gardens. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
- ^ "No. 15859". The London Gazette. 5 November 1805. p. 1373.
- ^ Tracy, N, 2006, pp. 149–50.
- ^ "No. 16083". The London Gazette. 3 November 1807. p. 1457.
- ^ Tracy, N, 2006, p. 150
- ^ Blake, p. 213
- ^ Hall, p. 40
- ^ a b Heathcote, p. 96
- ^ "No. 17004". The London Gazette. 18 April 1815. p. 725.
- ^ "No. 18709". The London Gazette. 23 July 1830. p. 1539.
- ^ "Biography of Philander Chase". Kenyon College. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- ^ Gannett, p. 134.
- ^ Grant, p. 68.
- ^ Walbran, p. 197 .
- ^ "The Gambiers – Pearls, Pearls, Pearls". Retrieved 24 December 2023.
- ^ Forester, pp. 214–22.
- ^ Burke's Peerage. 1830.
Sources
- Blake, Richard (2008). Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775–1815: Blue Lights and Psalm-singers. The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1843833598.
- ISBN 978-0-241-95549-9.
- Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Government Printing Office. p. 134.
- ISBN 978-0-7243-0036-5.
- Hall, Christopher David (1992). British Strategy in the Napoleonic War, 1803–15. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0719036064.
- Heathcote, Tony (2002). The British Admirals of the Fleet 1734–1995. Pen & Sword. ISBN 0-85052-835-6.
- Rodger, N.A.M. (1979). The Admiralty. Offices of State. Lavenham: T. Dalton Ltd. ISBN 0900963948.
- Tracy, Nicholas (2006). Who's Who in Nelson's Navy: Two Hundred Heroes. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1861762443.
- Walbran, Captain John T. (1971). British Columbia Place Names, Their Origin and History (Facsimile reprint of 1909 ed.). Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 0-88894-143-9. Archived from the originalon 3 March 2016.
External links
- "James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 439.