The Viscount Keppel | |
|---|---|
 1749 portrait of Keppel byJoshua Reynolds | |
| Born | 25 April 1725 England |
| Died | 2 October 1786(1786-10-02) (aged 61) England |
| Allegiance | Great Britain |
| Branch | Royal Navy |
| Service years | 1735–1786 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands | |
| Conflicts | |
AdmiralAugustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel,PC (25 April 1725 – 2 October 1786) was aRoyal Navy officer and politician who sat in theHouse of Commons from 1755 to 1782. He saw action in command of various ships, including thefourth-rateMaidstone, during theWar of the Austrian Succession. He went on to serve asCommodore on the North American Station and thenCommander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station during theSeven Years' War. After that he served asSenior Naval Lord and then Commander-in-Chief of theChannel Fleet.
During theAmerican Revolutionary War Keppel came into a notorious dispute withSir Hugh Palliser over Palliser's conduct as his second-in-command at the inconclusiveBattle of Ushant in July 1778; the dispute led to Keppel and Palliser facingcourts martial, which acquitted both of them. During the final years of the American Revolutionary War Keppel served asFirst Lord of the Admiralty.
A member of a leadingWhig aristocratic family (which had come to England withWilliam of Orange in 1688), Augustus Keppel was the second son ofWillem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle and,Anne van Keppel, a daughter of the1st Duke of Richmond (himself an illegitimate son ofKing Charles II).[1] Educated briefly atWestminster School, Keppel went to sea at the age of ten, and had already five years of service to his credit when he was appointed toCenturion and sent withLord Anson round the world in 1740.[1] He had a very narrow escape from being killed at the capture ofPaita (13 November 1741) and was promoted to actinglieutenant in March 1742.[2][1] Also on this voyage, he made friends withJohn Campbell, and lost many of his teeth to thescurvy prevalent on the voyage. After their return from the circumnavigation, in November 1744, he was promoted to becommander andpost-captain of the 14-gunsloopWolf.[3] He transferred to thesixth-rateGreyhound in December 1744, to thefifth-rateSaphire in February 1745 and thefourth-rateMaidstone in November 1745.[1] In June 1747 he ran his ship, theMaidstone, ashore near Belleisle while chasing a French vessel, but was honourably acquitted by a court martial, and reappointed to another command,[2] the fourth-rateAnson.[1] He was actively employed throughout the rest of theWar of the Austrian Succession, untilpeace was signed in 1748.[1]
Early in 1749, he was introduced byLord Edgecombe toSir Joshua Reynolds. When, on 11 May 1749, Keppel sailed from Plymouth to theMediterranean, as Commodore commanding theMediterranean Fleet,[4] (with his pennant in his old ship HMSCenturion intending to persuade theDey ofAlgiers to restrain thepiratical operations of his subjects[2]) Reynolds travelled with him as far asMenorca and there painted the first of his 6 portraits of Keppel,[a] along with others of officers of the British garrison there.[b] Keppel concluded an agreement with theDey of Algiers which protected British commerce. After negotiating treaties at Tripoli and Tunis, Keppel returned to England in July 1751.[4]
During theSeven Years' War he saw constant service. He served asCommodore on the North American Station with his broad pennant in the fourth-rateNorwich from 1751 to 1755.[7] He was on the coast of France in 1756 and was detached on anexpedition to conquer Gorée, a French island off the west coast of Africa in 1758. His ship,Torbay (74), was the first to get into action in theBattle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759.[1]
In 1757 he had formed part of the court martial which had condemned AdmiralJohn 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.[1] In March 1761, Keppel transferred to thethird-rateHMS Valiant and was put in command of a squadron to reduce Belle Isle, which was successfully completed in June 1761.[1]
WhenSpain joinedFrance in 1762 he was sent as second in command withSir George Pocock in theBritish expedition against Cuba which tookHavana.[1] 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".[2]
Promoted torear admiral on 21 October 1762, Keppel became Commander-in-Chief of theJamaica Station late in the year.[8] He was a member of theBoard of Admiralty in theFirst Rockingham ministry from July 1765 and wasSenior Naval Lord in theChatham ministry from September 1766[9] until leaving the Admiralty Board in December 1766.[10] In 1768 he acquiredElveden Hall inSuffolk.[11] He was promoted tovice admiral on 24 October 1770. When theFalklands 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.[2]
The most prominent period of his life belongs to the opening years of theAmerican Revolutionary War. Keppel was a strong supporter of theWhig connection, led by theMarquess of Rockingham and theDuke of Richmond. The Whigs were then excluded from power byGeorge III. As a member of Parliament, in which he had a seat forChichester from 1755 until 1761,Windsor from 1761 until 1780, and then forSurrey 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 particularLord Sandwich, thenFirst Lord of the Admiralty, were capable of any villainy. When Keppel was promoted to fulladmiral on 29 January 1778[12] and appointed to command theWestern Squadron, the main fleet prepared against France, he thought the First Lord would be glad for him to be defeated.[2][1]
Prior to 1778 Keppel failed to persuade Sandwich to ignore technical difficulties and "copper sheath only a few ships"; he was later possibly unfairly to make political capital out of this inThe 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 theThirteen Colonies.[13]
One of Keppel's subordinate admirals wasSir 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 (theFirst 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.[2]
Though Keppel praised Palliser in his public despatch, heattacked 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.[2][1] Acolumn was built in the late 18th century to commemorate his acquittal, commissioned byCharles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and designed byJohn Carr.[14]
When theNorth ministry fell in 1782 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, was raised to the peerage asViscount Keppel, of Elveden in the County of Suffolk,[15] and sworn of thePrivy Council.[16] His career in office was not distinguished, and he broke with his old political associates by resigning as a protest against thePeace of Paris. He finally discredited himself by joiningthe Coalition ministry formed byLord North andCharles James Fox, and with its fall disappeared from public life in December 1783.[1] Keppel died unmarried on 2 October 1786.[1]Edmund 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".[2] The peerage died with him.[1]
Keppel appears inPatrick O'Brian's 1956 novelThe Golden Ocean as a midshipman aboard theCenturion. He is often the comic relief, winding up bald and toothless due to the various privations of the voyage.[17]
Great Keppel Island andKeppel Bay inAustralia, andKeppel Island in theFalkland Islands are named after Keppel.[18]Keppel's Column inRotherham was constructed to mark his acquittal.[19]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Hannay, David (1911). "Keppel, Augustus Keppel, Viscount". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 751–752.
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forChichester 1755–1761 With:John Page | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWindsor 1761–1780 With:John Fitzwilliam 1761–1768 Lord George Beauclerk 1768 Richard Tonson 1768–1772 John Hussey-Montagu 1772–1780 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSurrey 1780–1782 With:Sir Joseph Mawbey | Succeeded by |
| Military offices | ||
| Preceded by | Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station 1762–1764 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Senior Naval Lord September 1766–December 1766 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | First Lord of the Admiralty 1782–1783 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | First Lord of the Admiralty 1783 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of Great Britain | ||
| New creation | Viscount Keppel 1782–1786 | Extinct |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
