Michael Seymour (Royal Navy officer, born 1802)
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Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, GCB (3 December 1802 – 23 February 1887) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.
Naval career
Born the third son of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, 1st Baronet,<ref name=odnb>Laughton, J. K.. "Seymour, Sir Michael (1802–1887)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004 ed.). Oxford University Press. {{#invoke:CS1 identifiers|main|_template=doi}}.</ref> Michael Seymour entered the Royal Navy in 1813.<ref name=odnb/> He was made lieutenant in 1822, commander in 1824 and was posted captain in 1826.<ref name=odnb/> From 1833 to 1835 he was captain of the survey ship HMS Challenger, and was wrecked in her off the coast of Chile.<ref name=odnb/> In 1841 he was given command of HMS Britannia and then of HMS Powerful.<ref name=odnb/> In 1845 he took over HMS Vindictive.<ref name=odnb/>
From 1851 to 1854 he was Commodore Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard.<ref name=odnb/> In 1854 he served under Sir Charles Napier in the Baltic during the Crimean War.<ref name=odnb/> He was promoted to Rear-Admiral that same year and, when the Baltic campaign was resumed in 1855 under Admiral the Hon. Richard Dundas, Seymour was second in command.<ref name=odnb/>
On 19 February 1856 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the East Indies and China Station.<ref name=odnb/> Flying his flag in HMS Calcutta,<ref name=odnb/> he conducted operations arising from the attack on the British coaster Arrow.<ref name=odnb/> During the Arrow War in China, he commanded the Battle of the Bogue in November 1856, helped destroy the Chinese fleet in the Battle of Fatshan Creek in June 1857,<ref name=odnb/> captured Canton in December,<ref name=odnb/> and in 1858 he captured the forts on the Baihe (Hai River),<ref name=odnb/> compelling the Chinese government to consent to the Treaty of Tientsin.<ref name=odnb/> He was made GCB in 1859.<ref name=odnb/> He sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Devonport from 1859 to 1863.<ref name=odnb/> In 1863 he was made Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, a post he held until 1866.<ref name=odnb/> He retired in 1870.<ref name=odnb/>
Seymour Road in Hong Kong Island was named after him.
Family
In 1829 he married Dorothy Knighton: they had a son and three daughters.<ref name=odnb/> He was the uncle of Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, also a British admiral.
Art work
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1846 July 30, to New York from Raritan River
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Approaching La Guaira, Venezuela
Further reading
References
External links
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