Edward Hobart Seymour

Sir Edward Hobart Seymour

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Hobart Seymour GCB OM RN (30 April 1840–2 March 1929) was a British Admiral of the Fleet.

He was the grandson of Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, 1st Baronet, and nephew of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour. He was educated at Radley College and Eastman's Naval Academy, Southsea.

He served in the Black Sea until the evacuation of Crimea in 1856. After the end of the Crimean War, still a midshipman, he was appointed to the HMS Calcutta, flagship of his uncle Sir Michael Seymour, on the China station. He took part in the capture of Canton (December 1857). In HMS Chesapeake Seymour took part in the attack on the Taku forts in September 1860.

In December 1897, Seymour was appointed commander-in-chief on the China station, though he did not assume command until 18 February 1898.^[1] His flagship was the battleship HMS Centurion. Service there was peaceful until the Boxer Rebellion. Seymour led the Naval Brigade in the relief of Peking. As of March 1901, Seymour's command on the China Station in March 1901 consisted of:^[2]

• Battleships: Centurion, Barfleur (Rear-Admiral Sir James A. T. Bruce, K.C.M.G. second in command),^[1] Glory, Goliath, Ocean.
• 1st Class cruisers: Argonaut, Aurora, Blenheim, Endymion, Orlando , Terrible, Undaunted **.
• 2nd Class cruisers: Arethusa ‡, Astraea ‡ , Bonaventure, Dido ‡, Hermione, lsis ‡, Pique.
• 3rd Class cruisers: Alacrity, Wallaroo ‡.
• Destroyers: Fame, Hart, Otter, Whiting.
• Sloops: Algerine, Daphne, Phoenix,Rosario.
• Gunvessel: Linnet.
• Gunboats: Bramble, Brisk, Britomart, Esk , Lizard ‡, Pigmy, Plover, Redpole.^[3]
• Storeship: Humber.
• Receiving ship Hong Kong: Tamar (flagship of the Commodore in charge at Hong Kong, Commodore Francis Powell, C.B)^[1]
• River steamers: Robin, Sandpiper, Snipe, Woodcock, Woodlark.

** Ordered home.

‡ Temporarily attached to China Station.

"Seymour was a man of a singularly broad and humane outlook...He was a widely read and good linguist. He described his services with great modesty and a total lack of self-consciousness in My Naval Career and Travels (1911). He was unmarried."

At the time of his death, he was the last living of the original (1902) members of the Order of Merit.

See also

• Seymour family
• Culme-Seymour Baronets
• Sir Ernest Satow who mentioned meeting Seymour in his diaries

References

• See entry by H.W. Richmond in Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 1997.

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Navy List March 1901, corrected to 18 February 1901, page 217
2. ^ Navy List March 1901, corrected to 18 February 1901, page 218
3. ^ The name of this ship is given as HMS Redpole in the 1901 Navy List, but HMS Redpoll in Conways 1860-1905.