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Edward Codrington
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Admiral Sir Edward Codrington GCB RN (27 April 1770 – 28 April 1851) was a British admiral, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Navarino.
youngest of three brothers born to an aristocratic, landowning family, Codrington was educated by an uncle named Mr Bethell. He was sent for a short time to Harrow, and entered the Royal Navy in July 1783. He served off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, in the Mediterranean and in home waters, until he was promoted to lieutenant on 28 May 1793, when Lord Howe selected him to be signal lieutenant on the flagship of the Channel fleet at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars.
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Admiral Sir Edward Codrington GCB RN (27 April 1770 – 28 April 1851) was a British admiral, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Navarino.
Early life and career
The youngest of three brothers born to an aristocratic, landowning family, Codrington was educated by an uncle named Mr Bethell. He was sent for a short time to Harrow, and entered the Royal Navy in July 1783. He served off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, in the Mediterranean and in home waters, until he was promoted to lieutenant on 28 May 1793, when Lord Howe selected him to be signal lieutenant on the flagship of the Channel fleet at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars. In that capacity he served on the 100-gun during the operations which culminated in the battle of the Glorious First of June.
As a reward for his actions at the battle, on the 7 October 1794 he was promoted to commander, and on the 6 April 1795 attained the rank of Post-Captain and the command of the 22-gun from which he observed the Battle of Groix. His next command was the frigate whom he commanded in the Channel and off the coast of Portugal, until she was paid off in 1797. Following this, Codrington spent a period largely on land and on half-pay for some years. In December 1802 he married Jane Hall, an English woman from Kingston, Jamaica, and remained without a ship until the Peace of Amiens came to a close in 1803.
Service in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812
On the renewal of hostilities with France he remained in frigates for some time before being given the ship of the line HMS Orion in the spring of 1805 which was attached to Admiral Nelson's fleet off Cadiz in the blockade of the combined fleet. Codrington and Orion were engaged at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, where Orion was stationed to the rear of the northern division and therefore took two hours to reach battle. Once there, Codrington ignored all other ships and focused entirely on closing with a hitheroto unengaged French ship, the Swiftsure, forcing her to surrender. He then attacked but failed to capture the Spanish flagship Principe de Asturias before moving on to the Intrepide, the only ship of the northern division to return. Orion, with other ships, dismasted and then sailed round her firing continually until she surrendered.
For the next several years, Codrington fought alongside the Spanish against the French in the Mediterranean Sea, commanding a squadron which harried French shipping and made numerous coastal raids. he also supported the disastrous Walcheren expedition in 1809. In 1814 he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral, at which time he was serving off the coast of North America as captain of the fleet to Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane during the operations against Washington, Baltimore and New Orleans during the War of 1812. In recognition of this service, in 1815 he was made a Knight Commander of the Bath and then a vice admiral on the 10 July 1821.
The Greek War of Independence and the Battle of Navarino
In December 1826 Codrington was appointed once again to the Mediterranean command, and sailed on the 1 February 1827. From that date until his recall on the 21 June 1828 he was engaged in the arduous duties imposed on him by the Greek War of Independence, which had led to anarchy in Greece and surrounding areas. His orders were to enforce a peaceful solution on the situation in Greece, but Codrington was unfortunately not known for his diplomacy, and on 20 October 1827 he destroyed the Turkish and Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino while in command of a combined British, French and Russian fleet.
After the battle Codrington went to Malta to refit his ships. He remained there till May 1828, when he sailed to join his French and Russian colleagues on the coast of the Morea. They endeavoured to enforce the evacuation of the peninsula by Ibrahim Pasha peacefully. The Pasha made diplomatic difficulties, and on the 25th of July the three admirals agreed that Codrington should go to Alexandria to obtain Ibrahims recall by his father Mehemet Ali. Codrington had heard on the 22 June of his own supersession, but, as his successor had not arrived, he carried out the arrangement made on the 25 July, and his presence at Alexandria led to the treaty of the 6 August 1828, by which the evacuation of the Morea was settled. His services were recognized by the grant of the Grand Cross of the Bath, but there is no doubt that the British government was embarrassed by his heavy-handed gunboat diplomacy and not too impressed by the further weakening of Russia's main opponent, the Ottomans.
Later years
After his return home Codrington spent some time in defending himself, and then in leisure abroad. He commanded a training squadron in the Channel in 1831 and became a full admiral on the 10th of January 1837. He was elected Member of Parliament for Devonport in 1832, and sat for that constituency until he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds in 1839. From November 1839 to December 1842 he was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. Codrington died in London on the 28th of April 1851. He left two sons, both of whom achieved distinction in the British armed forces. Sir William John Codrington (1804-1884) was a commander in the Crimean War. Sir John Henry Codrington (1808-1877), a naval officer, became an Admiral of the Fleet.
Codrington was buried in St Peter's Church in Eaton Square, but due to shoddy maintenance work in 1953 and a large fire in 1987, there is no remaining trace of his tombstone or body. Plaques to his memory can be found in St Paul's Cathedral, the family home in Dodington and there is a large obelisk dedicated to the memory of him and the other officers at Navarino at Pylos in Greece.
Research at St. Peter's Church Eaton Square London in October 2005, revealed in 1954 the remains were buried at Brookwood cemetery in Surrey, plot number 70.
Further reading
- The Trafalgar Captains (2005) - Colin White and the 1805 Club, Chatham Publishing, London ISBN 1-86176-247-X
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