Richard Vesey Hamilton

Who was Richard Vesey Hamilton?

Admiral Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton, GCB was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he twice volunteered to take part in missions to search for Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition to find the Northwest Passage. He also took part in the Battle of Fatshan Creek in June 1857 during the Second Opium War. Later in his career he became Commander-in-Chief, China Station and took his fleet into Vladivostok harbour in 1886 and gave the Russians a surprise. He became First Naval Lord in July 1889 and in that role he was primarily concerned with implementing the recommendations contained in a report on the disposition of the ships of the Royal Navy many of which were unarmoured and together incapable of meeting the combined threat from any two of the other naval powers: these recommendations had been enshrined in the Naval Defence Act 1889. He finished his career as President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.