Hugh Cloberry Christian

Who was Hugh Cloberry Christian?

Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian KB was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary Wars.

Details of his early life are obscure, but he appears to have served initially in the English Channel and the Mediterranean, before obtaining the rank of captain and going out to North America with Commodore Joshua Rowley. Christian was Rowley's flag-captain on HMS Suffolk for several years, and saw action in several of the naval engagements of the American War of Independence.

Returning to Britain at the end of the war, he spent a period without active employment, before receiving a post as second captain aboard Lord Howe's flagship, the 100-gun HMS Queen Charlotte, during the Spanish Armament. He temporarily left her when the crisis abated, but the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars led to his return to Queen Charlotte. Christian stepped down from her in 1794 to join the Transport Board, and in 1795 was promoted to rear-admiral.

He was made commander-in-chief in the West Indies and given the task of transporting a large troop convoy. Twice he attempted the crossing of the Atlantic, and twice he was forced back by severe gales which ravaged his fleet and wrecked a number of the merchant ships in the convoy. He made a third attempt in 1796, and succeeded in shepherding the fleet to its destination. He was then active in using the troops and his naval forces to capture the islands of Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenada, before returning to England. He was made second in command at the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, succeeding to commander-in-chief the following year, and he died while in command there in November 1798.