View source for Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel

{{short description|Royal Navy Admiral and politician (1725–1786)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox military person
|honorific_prefix = [[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] [[The Right Honourable]]
|name=The Viscount Keppel
|honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}}
|birth_date=25 April 1725
|death_date= {{death date and age|df=yes|1786|10|2|1725|4|25}}
|image=Augustus Keppel BHC2821.jpg
|caption=''[[Portrait of Augustus Keppel]]'', 1749, [[Joshua Reynolds]]'s first painting of him,<br/>produced on Menorca
|nickname=
|birth_place=
|death_place=
|allegiance={{Flag|Kingdom of Great Britain}}
|branch={{navy|Kingdom of Great Britain}}
|serviceyears=1735–1786
|rank=[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]]
|unit=
|commands= {{HMS|Wolf|1742|6}}<br/>{{HMS|Greyhound|1741|6}}<br/>{{HMS|Sapphire|1741|6}}<br/>{{HMS|Maidstone|1744|6}}<br/>{{HMS|Anson|1747|6}}<br/>{{HMS|Centurion|1732|6}}<br/>[[Mediterranean Fleet]]<br/>[[Commander-in-Chief, North American Station|North American Station]]<br/>{{HMS|Swiftsure|1750|6}}<br/>[[HMS Neptune (1683)|HMS ''Torbay'']]<br/>{{HMS|Valiant|1759|6}}<br/>[[Jamaica Station (Royal Navy)|Jamaica Station]]<br/>[[Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty]]<br/>[[Channel Fleet]]<br/>[[First Lord of the Admiralty]]
|battles={{Tree list}}
*[[War of the Austrian Succession]]
**[[George Anson's voyage around the world|Anson expedition]])
*[[Seven Years' War]]
**[[Raid on Rochefort]]
**[[Raid on St Malo]]
**[[Capture of Gorée]]
**[[Battle of Quiberon Bay]]
**[[Capture of Belle Île]]
**[[Siege of Havana]]
*[[American Revolutionary War]]
**[[Battle of Ushant (1778)|Battle of Ushant]]
{{tree list/end}}
|awards=
|relations=
|laterwork=
}}

[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] '''Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel''', [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]] (25 April 1725{{snd}}2 October 1786) was a [[Royal Navy]] officer and politician who sat in the [[House of Commons]] from 1755 to 1782. He saw action in command of various ships, including the [[fourth-rate]] {{HMS|Maidstone|1744|2}}, during the [[War of the Austrian Succession]]. He went on to serve as [[North America and West Indies Station|Commodore on the North American Station]] and then [[Jamaica Station (Royal Navy)|Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station]] during the [[Seven Years' War]]. After that he served as [[First Sea Lord|Senior Naval Lord]] and then Commander-in-Chief of the [[Channel Fleet]].

During the [[American Revolutionary War]] Keppel came into a notorious dispute with [[Hugh Palliser|Sir Hugh Palliser]] over Palliser's conduct as his second-in-command at the inconclusive [[Battle of Ushant (1778)|Battle of Ushant]] in July 1778; the dispute led to Keppel and Palliser facing [[courts martial]], which acquitted both of them. During the final years of the American Revolutionary War Keppel served as [[First Lord of the Admiralty]].

==Early life==
A member of a leading [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] aristocratic family (which had come to England with [[William III of England|William of Orange]] in 1688), Augustus Keppel was the second son of [[Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle]] and, [[Anne van Keppel, Countess of Albemarle|Anne van Keppel]], a daughter of the [[Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond|1st Duke of Richmond]] (himself an illegitimate son of [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]]).<ref name=dnb>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Keppel, Augustus|first=John Knox |last=Laughton  |volume=31}}</ref> Educated briefly at [[Westminster School]], Keppel went to sea at the age of ten, and had already five years of service to his credit when he was appointed to {{HMS|Centurion|1732|2}} and sent with [[George Anson, 1st Baron Anson|Lord Anson]] round the world in 1740.<ref name=dnb/> He had a very narrow escape from being killed at the capture of [[Paita]] (13 November 1741) and was promoted to acting [[Lieutenant (navy)|lieutenant]] in March 1742.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Keppel, Augustus Keppel, Viscount|volume=15|pages=751–752|first=David|last=Hannay|author-link=David Hannay (historian)}}</ref><ref name=dnb/> Also on this voyage, he made friends with [[John Campbell (Royal Navy officer)|John Campbell]], and lost many of his teeth to the [[scurvy]] prevalent on the voyage. After their return from the circumnavigation, in November 1744, he was promoted to be [[Commander#Royal Navy|commander]] and [[post-captain]] of the 14-gun [[sloop-of-war|sloop]] {{HMS|Wolf|1742|2}}.<ref>Winfield 2007, p. 300</ref> He transferred to the [[sixth-rate]]
{{HMS|Greyhound|1741|2}} in December 1744, to the [[fifth-rate]] {{HMS|Saphire|1741|2}} in February 1745 and the [[fourth-rate]] {{HMS|Maidstone|1744|2}} in November 1745.<ref name=dnb/> In June 1747 he ran his ship, the ''Maidstone'', ashore near Belleisle while chasing a French vessel, but was honourably acquitted by a court martial, and reappointed to another command,<ref name="EB1911"/> the fourth-rate {{HMS|Anson|1747|2}}.<ref name=dnb/> He was actively employed throughout the rest of the [[War of the Austrian Succession]], until [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|peace]] was signed in 1748.<ref name=dnb/>

[[File:Captain the Honourable Augustus Keppel 1725-86 by Sir Joshua Reynolds.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Keppel, by [[Joshua Reynolds|Reynolds]], 1752–53, in a pose not much like the [[Apollo Belvedere]].]]
Early in 1749, he was introduced by [[George Edgcumbe, 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe|Lord Edgecombe]] to [[Joshua Reynolds|Sir Joshua Reynolds]].  When, on 11 May 1749, Keppel sailed from Plymouth to the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], as Commodore commanding the [[Mediterranean Fleet]],<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15439?docPos=3 |title=Augustus Keppel |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/15439 |access-date=29 July 2017|last1=MacKay |first1=Ruddock }}</ref> (with his pennant in his old ship HMS ''Centurion'' intending to persuade the [[Dey]] of [[Algiers]] to restrain the [[Barbary pirates|piratical]] operations of his subjects<ref name="EB1911"/>) Reynolds travelled with him as far as [[Menorca]] and there painted the first of his 6 portraits of Keppel,{{efn|One of the 6, belonging originally to Edmund Burke,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cone |first1=Carl B. |title=Edmund Burke's Art Collection |journal=The Art Bulletin |date=1947 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=126–131 |doi=10.2307/3047117 |jstor=3047117}}</ref> is now in the [[National Gallery]] where there is also one by him of Keppel's mother<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sir-joshua-reynolds-anne-2nd-countess-of-albemarle|title=Anne, 2nd Countess of Albemarle|publisher=National Gallery|access-date=29 July 2017}}</ref>}} along with others of officers of the British garrison there.{{efn|Reynolds then stayed on the island for the rest of 1749 before leaving for Rome, where he stayed 2 years}} Keppel concluded an agreement with the [[Dey of Algiers]] which protected British commerce. After negotiating treaties at Tripoli and Tunis, Keppel returned to England in July 1751.<ref name=odnb/>

==Seven Years' War==
{{further|Great Britain in the Seven Years' War}}
During the [[Seven Years' War]] he saw constant service. He served as [[North America and West Indies Station|Commodore on the North American Station]] with his broad pennant in the fourth-rate {{HMS|Norwich|1745|2}} from 1751 to 1755.<ref>[http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_augustus_keppel.htm Augustus Keppel] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101127131246/http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_augustus_keppel.htm |date=27 November 2010 }} Royal Navy Museum</ref> He was on the coast of France in 1756 and was detached on an [[Capture of Gorée|expedition to conquer Gorée]], a French island off the west coast of Africa in 1758. His ship, [[HMS Neptune (1683)|''Torbay'' (74)]], was the first to get into action in the [[Battle of Quiberon Bay]] in November 1759.<ref name=dnb/>

In 1757 he had formed part of the court martial which had condemned Admiral [[John Byng]], but was active among those who endeavoured to secure a pardon for him; but neither he nor those who had acted with him could produce any serious reason why the sentence should not be carried out.<ref name=dnb/> In March 1761, Keppel transferred to the [[third-rate]] {{HMS|Valiant|1759|6}} and was put in command of a squadron to reduce Belle Isle, which was successfully completed in June 1761.<ref name=dnb/>

===Havana expedition===
{{Main|Battle of Havana (1762)}}

When [[Spain]] joined [[France]] in 1762 he was sent as second in command with [[George Pocock|Sir George Pocock]] in the [[Battle of Havana (1762)|British expedition against Cuba]] which took [[Havana]].<ref name=dnb/> His health suffered from the fever which carried off an immense proportion of the soldiers and sailors. The £25,000 of prize money which he received freed him from the unpleasant position of "younger son of a family ruined by the extravagance of his father".<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Achievement of flag rank===
[[File:Augustus Keppel by Thomas Hickey.jpg|thumb|right|Keppel, wearing flag officer's [[Full dress|undress uniform]], 1765, by [[Joshua Reynolds|Reynolds]] ([[National Maritime Museum]])]]
Promoted to [[Rear admiral (Royal Navy)|rear admiral]] on 21 October 1762, Keppel became Commander-in-Chief of the [[Jamaica Station (Royal Navy)|Jamaica Station]] late in the year.<ref>Cundall, p. xx</ref> He was a member of the [[Board of Admiralty]] in the [[First Rockingham ministry]] from July 1765 and was [[First Sea Lord|Senior Naval Lord]] in the [[Chatham ministry]] from September 1766<ref>Rodger, p. 51–52</ref> until leaving the Admiralty Board in December 1766.<ref name=Sainty-18-31>{{cite web|title=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.|url=http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16652|access-date=4 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007025436/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16652|archive-date=7 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1768 he acquired [[Elveden Hall]] in [[Suffolk]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mrs. Stirling|title=A Master of the Horse|journal=The Nineteenth Century and After|date=July 1911|volume=70|page=525|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htJCAQAAMAAJ|access-date=2 November 2014}}</ref> He was promoted to [[Vice admiral (Royal Navy)|vice admiral]] on 24 October 1770. When the [[Falklands Crisis (1770)|Falklands Crisis]] occurred in 1770 he was to have commanded the fleet to be sent against Spain, but a settlement was reached, and he had no occasion to hoist his flag.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==American War of Independence==
The most prominent period of his life belongs to the opening years of the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Keppel was a strong supporter of the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] connection, led by the [[Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham|Marquess of Rockingham]] and the [[Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond|Duke of Richmond]]. The Whigs were then excluded from power by [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]]. As a member of Parliament, in which he had a seat for [[Chichester (UK Parliament constituency)|Chichester]] from 1755 until 1761, [[Windsor (UK Parliament constituency)|Windsor]] from 1761 until 1780, and then for [[Surrey (UK Parliament constituency)|Surrey]] from 1780 to 1782, Keppel was a Whig partisan, hostile to the King's Friends. The Whigs believed that the king's ministers, and in particular [[John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich|Lord Sandwich]], then [[First Lord of the Admiralty]], were capable of any villainy. When Keppel was promoted to full [[Admiral (Royal Navy)|admiral]] on 29 January 1778<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11844|page=2|date=27 January 1778}}</ref> and appointed to command the [[Western Squadron]], the main fleet prepared against France, he thought the First Lord would be glad for him to be defeated.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=dnb/>

Prior to 1778 Keppel failed to persuade Sandwich to ignore technical difficulties and "[[Copper sheathing|copper sheath]] only a few ships"; he was later possibly unfairly to make political capital out of this in ''[[The London Magazine]]'', March 1781. He had remarked that coppering "gave additional strength to the navy" and he reproached Lord Sandwich with having "refused to sheath only a few ships with copper" at his request, when he had since ordered the whole navy to be sheathed. The lack of coppering the Navy was one of the key reasons leading to Britain losing the [[Thirteen Colonies]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Keppel and Sandwich|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/copper-bottomed.html|website=phrases.org.uk|access-date=28 December 2017}}</ref>

One of Keppel's subordinate admirals was [[Hugh Palliser|Sir Hugh Palliser]], a member of the Admiralty Board, a member of parliament, and in Keppel's opinion responsible with his colleagues for the bad state of the [[Royal Navy]]. The battle which Keppel fought with the French on 27 July 1778 (the [[Battle of Ushant (1778)|First Battle of Ushant]]) ended badly. Reasons included Keppel's own management, but also the failure of Palliser to obey orders. Keppel became convinced that he had been deliberately betrayed.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Keppel–Palliser affair{{anchor|Court-martial on Admiral Keppel Act 1779}}==
[[File:Keppels Court Martial.jpg|thumb|Keppel's court-martial at the [[Domus Dei|Governor's House]], Portsmouth]]
Though Keppel praised Palliser in his public despatch, he [[Keppel–Palliser affair|attacked him in private]]. The Whig press, with Keppel's friends, began a campaign of calumny. The ministerial papers answered in the same style, and each side accused the other of deliberate treason. The result was a scandalous series of scenes in Parliament and of courts martial. Keppel was first tried and acquitted, and then Palliser was also tried and acquitted. Keppel left his post in March 1779.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=dnb/> A [[Keppel's Column|column]] was built in the late 18th century to commemorate his acquittal, commissioned by [[Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham]] and designed by [[John Carr (architect)|John Carr]].<ref name="village">{{cite web|url=http://www.wentworthvillage.net/keppelscolumn.shtml |title=Keppel's Column |publisher=wentworthvillage.net |access-date=13 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509133814/http://www.wentworthvillage.net/keppelscolumn.shtml |archive-date=9 May 2008 }}
</ref>

==Political career==
[[File:Augustus Keppel, Viscount Keppel by Sir Joshua Reynolds.jpg|thumb|right|Lord Keppel in his later years.]]
When the [[North ministry]] fell in 1782 he became [[British Admiralty|First Lord of the Admiralty]], was raised to the peerage as '''Viscount Keppel''', of Elveden in the County of Suffolk,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=12290 |date=23 April 1782 |page=1 }}</ref> and sworn of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=12282 |date=26 March 1782 |page=1 }}</ref> His career in office was not distinguished, and he broke with his old political associates by resigning as a protest against the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Peace of Paris]]. He finally discredited himself by joining [[Fox–North coalition|the Coalition ministry]] formed by North and [[Charles James Fox|Fox]], and with its fall disappeared from public life in December 1783.<ref name=dnb/> Keppel died unmarried on 2 October 1786.<ref name=dnb/> [[Edmund Burke|Burke]], who regarded him with great affection, said that "he had something high in his nature, and that it was a wild stock of pride on which the tenderest of all hearts had grafted the milder virtues".<ref name="EB1911"/> The peerage died with him.<ref name=dnb/>

==In popular culture==
Keppel appears in [[Patrick O'Brian]]'s 1956 novel ''[[The Golden Ocean]]'' as a midshipman aboard the ''Centurion''.  He is often the comic relief, winding up bald and toothless due to the various privations of the voyage.<ref>{{cite book |author=O'Brian, Patrick |title=The Golden Ocean |publisher=Recorded Books |year=1995 |isbn=0-7887-4469-0}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Great Keppel Island]] and [[Keppel Bay]] in [[Australia]], and [[Keppel Island]] in the [[Falkland Islands]] are named after Keppel.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8106|title=Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World|access-date=30 July 2017}}</ref> [[Keppel's Column]] in [[Rotherham]] was constructed to mark his acquittal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101314632-keppels-column-keppel-ward|title=Keppels Column, Keppel, Rotherham|website=www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk|access-date=11 March 2018}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
{{Commons category|Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Barry | first1 = Quintin | title = From Ushant to Gibraltar: The Channel Fleet 1778-1783 | series = From Reason to Revolution | publisher = Helion & Company | year = 2022 | location = Warwick | isbn = 9781915070395}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Keppel, Augustus Keppel, Viscount|volume=15|pages=751–752}}
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924020417527#page/n27/mode/2up|title=Historic Jamaica|first=Frank|last=Cundall|publisher=West India Committee|year=1915}}
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Keppel, Augustus|first=John Knox |last=Laughton  |volume=31}}
* {{cite book|last=Rodger|first=N.A.M. |year=1979|title=The Admiralty. Offices of State|publisher= Lavenham: T. Dalton Ltd|isbn=0900963948}}
* {{cite book | last = Winfield| first = Rif|title = British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates | publisher =  Seaforth| year = 2007|isbn=9781844157006}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|gb}}
{{succession box | title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Chichester (UK Parliament constituency)|Chichester]]
 | with = [[John Page (died 1779)|John Page]]| years=1755–1761 | before=[[John Page (died 1779)|John Page]]<br />[[George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle|Viscount Bury]] | after=[[John Page (died 1779)|John Page]]<br />[[Lord George Henry Lennox]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Windsor (UK Parliament constituency)|Windsor]]
 | with = [[John Fitzwilliam (British Army officer)|John Fitzwilliam]] 1761–1768 <br />[[Lord George Beauclerk]] 1768 <br />[[Richard Tonson]] 1768–1772 <br />[[John Hussey-Montagu]] 1772–1780 | years=1761–1780 | before=[[Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland|Henry Fox]]<br />[[John Fitzwilliam (British Army officer)|John Fitzwilliam]] | after=[[John Hussey-Montagu]]<br />[[Peniston Portlock Powney]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Surrey (UK Parliament constituency)|Surrey]]
 | with = [[Joseph Mawbey|Sir Joseph Mawbey]]| years=1780–1782 | before=[[Joseph Mawbey|Sir Joseph Mawbey]]<br />[[James Scawen]] | after=[[Joseph Mawbey|Sir Joseph Mawbey]]<br />[[George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer|Viscount Althorp]]}}
|-
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef | before=[[Sir James Douglas, 1st Baronet|Sir James Douglas]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Jamaica Station (Royal Navy)|Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station]]| years=1762–1764}}
{{s-aft | after=[[Sir William Burnaby, 1st Baronet|William Burnaby]]}}
|-
{{succession box|title=[[First Sea Lord|Senior Naval Lord]]|before=[[Charles Saunders (Royal Navy officer)|Sir Charles Saunders]]|after=[[Peircy Brett|Sir Peircy Brett]]|years=September 1766&ndash;December 1766}}
|-
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | title=[[British Admiralty|First Lord of the Admiralty]] | before=[[John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich|The Earl of Sandwich]] | after=[[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe|The Viscount Howe]] | years=1782–1783}}
{{succession box | title=[[British Admiralty|First Lord of the Admiralty]] | before=[[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe|The Viscount Howe]] | after=[[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe|The Viscount Howe]] | years=1783}}
{{s-reg|gb}}
{{s-new | creation}}
{{s-ttl
| title  = [[Viscount Keppel]]
| years  = 1782–1786
}}
{{s-non | reason = Extinct }}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}
{{First Sea Lord}}
{{First Lords of the Admiralty}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keppel, Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount}}
[[Category:1725 births]]
[[Category:1786 deaths]]
[[Category:Keppel family|Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel]]
[[Category:Lords of the Admiralty]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Royal Navy admirals]]
[[Category:Viscounts in the Peerage of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Peers of Great Britain created by George III]]
[[Category:Younger sons of earls]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the War of the Austrian Succession]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War]]
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[[Category:People acquitted of treason]]
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