Edward Sneyd Clay

Who was Edward Sneyd Clay?

Edward Sneyd Clay was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Clay entered the navy just before the end of the American War of Independence. He found continued employment during the drawdown of the navy in peacetime, and was in the Mediterranean during the first naval campaigns against Revolutionary France. He saw action at the Siege of Toulon and the capture of Corsica during 1793 and 1794, and was promoted to lieutenant. Back in British waters by 1798 he took part in the Battle of Camperdown, and was wounded in the heavy fighting. Having impressed his commander, Admiral Adam Duncan, he was given the task of carrying the despatches of the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland back to Britain, and was then promoted to his first command. He continued to be involved in the major naval actions of his age, serving at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

Command of several ships of the line followed, and he continued his connection with the Baltic, serving in the Gunboat War against the Danes. His career nearly came to an end when his ship, a 36-gun frigate, was wrecked at the entrance to the Firth of Forth after a confusion over signal lights. The subsequent court-martial acquitted him of blame, and he spent the last years of the Napoleonic Wars commanding a receiving ship. He never again served at sea after the wars, but received several promotions, finally dying in 1846 as rear-admiral of the red.