Robert Stopford (Royal Navy officer)

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Admiral

Sir Robert Stopford
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George

GCMG (5 February 1768 – 25 June 1847) was a Royal Navy officer and politician whose career spanned over 60 years, from the French Revolutionary Wars to the Egyptian–Ottoman War
.

Stopford was the third son of James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown, and his wife Mary (née Powys). He joined the Royal Navy in 1780 and became a Lieutenant in 1785.[1] Commander Stopford was captain of Ferret 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.[1]

Stopford fought at the Battle of the

frigate HMS Aquilon (32).[1] 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.[2] One of Stopford's officers on Aquilon was Francis Beaufort, the inventor of the Beaufort Wind-Scale
.

On 10 March 1796, Stopford was captain of the

sixth rate 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.[2]

In 1799, Stopford was appointed captain of the 74-gun

third rate HMS Excellent in the Channel Fleet.[1] He sailed Excellent to the West Indies where he hoisted a commodore's pennant and served for eight months as the Commander-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands Station in 1802.[1][3]

In 1803, Stopford became captain of the ship of the line HMS Spencer (74), in Horatio Nelson's fleet.[1]

He became a Colonel of

Marines in November 1805 and received a gold medal for his conduct at the Battle of San Domingo in 1806, while still in command of Spencer.[1]
Stopford was wounded during the battle; he recovered, but the wound would plague him for the rest of his life.

Robert Stopford, c.1790-91, by Henry William Beechey, in the collection of the National Maritime Museum

He took part in the

Lord Gambier chased a fleet of ten French sail of the line into the Basque Roads and assumed command.[4] 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.[5]

In 1810, he sailed to South Africa to become Commander-in-Chief of the

Cape of Good Hope Station.[1][6] 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. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1827.[7]

HMS Phoenix at the bombardment of Acre
The Officers Monument, Greenwich Hospital Cemetery

Stopford became

Mehemet Ali. As Vice Admiral on board HMS Princess Charlotte (100) and subsequently HMS Phoenix, he was in command of the combined British, Turkish, and Austrian fleet during the bombardment of Acre on 3 November 1840. For his services in the Syrian War, Stopford was given the Freedom of the City of the City of London and presented with a commemorative "freedom box". The ornate silver and oak box is part of the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.[8] The following year he became Governor of the Greenwich Hospital at Greenwich,[9]
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 in the United Kingdom parliament from 1806 to 1807.[10]

See also

  • O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). "Stopford, Robert" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary . John Murray – via Wikisource.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Robert Stopford at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ a b United service Magazine (1847), p.639.
  3. ^ Haydn, Joseph (13 June 2008). The Book of Dignities: Containing Lists of the Official Personages of the British Empire ... from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time ... Together with the Sovereigns and Rulers of Europe, from the Foundation of Their Respective States; the Peerage of England and Great Britain Original 1851 Digitized by the University of Michigan. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 279.
  4. ^ Tracy, Nicholas, Who's Who in Nelson's Navy: 200 Heroes, Chatham, 2006, p. 333
  5. ^ Gurney, W.B. (1809). Minutes of a court-martial . . . on the trial of James Lord Gambier. Mottey, Harrison & Miller.
  6. ^ Hiscocks, Richard (17 January 2016). "Cape Commander-in-Chief 1795-1852". morethannelson.com. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  7. ^ History in Portsmouth Archived 27 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Freedom box presented by the City of London to Sir Robert Stopford, held in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich". Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  9. ^ "Royal Naval Hospital Old Burial Ground (nurses home), Greenwich, London, England". Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  10. ^ Winifred Stokes (1986). "STOPFORD, Hon. Robert (1768-1847).". In Thorne, R. G. (ed.). The House of Commons 1790–1820. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Stopford (Royal Navy officer).
Military offices
Preceded by Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands Station
1802–1803 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station

1810–1812 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
1827–1830 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Sir Josias Rowley
 Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet
1837–1841 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor, Greenwich Hospital
1841–1847 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom
1834–1847 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom
1847 		Succeeded by
Sir George Martin
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Middleton
 Member of Parliament for Ipswich
1806–1807
With: Richard Wilson 		Succeeded by
Sir Home Riggs Popham with
Robert Alexander Crickitt
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