Admiral Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour Alcester
Alcester, Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour, Baron
(1821-1895), British admiral, son of Colonel Sir Horace
Beauchamp Seymour and cousin of Francis George Hugh Seymour,
5th marquess of Hertford, was born on the 12th of April
1821. Entering the navy in 1834, he served in the Mediterranean
and the Pacific, was for three years flag-lieutenant to his
uncle Sir George Seymour, and was promoted to be commander in
1847. He served in Burma as a volunteer in 1852, was made
a captain in 1854, took the Meteor ironclad battery out
to the Black Sea and home again in 1856, was captain of the
Pelorus on the Australian station from 1857 to 1863,
and commanded the naval brigade in New Zealand during the
Maori War, 1860-61, for which he was made a C.B. He became
a rear-admiral in 1870; in 1871-1872 he commanded the flying
squadron, was a lord of the admiralty in 1872-1874, and
commanded the Channel fleet, 1874-1876. On the 31st of December
1876 he was made a vice-admiral, a K.C.B. on the 2nd of June
1877. In 1880-1883 he was commander-in-chief of the fleet
in the Mediterranean, and in 1880 had also the chief command
of the European squadron sent to the coast of Albania as
a demonstration to compel the Porte to cede Dulcigno to
Montenegro. On the 24th of May 1881 he was made a G.C.B.,
and on the 6th of May 1882 was promoted to the rank of
admiral. In July 1882 he commanded at the bombardment of
Alexandria and in the subsequent operations on the coast of
Egypt, for which service he was raised to the peerage as
Baron Alcester of Alcester in the county of Warwick, received
a parliamentary grant of £ 25.000, the freedom of the city
of London and a sword of honour. On his return from the
Mediterranean he was for a couple of years again at the
admiralty, and in 1886 he was placed on the retired list. For
the next nine years he lived chiefly in London, but latterly
his health was much broken, and he died on the 30th of March
1895. He was unmarried and the peerage became extinct.
Updated 1996-04-25 by
Lars Bruzelius
Sjöhistoriska Samfundet |
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Copyright © 1996 Lars Bruzelius.