1st Edition
Letters and Papers of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Byam Martin Vol. II
Admiral Hamilton edited three volumes of Byam Martin’s papers which were issued out of sequence.
This volume consists of journals, public and private correspondence dealing with the years 1808 to 1812, when Martin was a captain in Saumarez’s fleet in the Baltic, and 1812 to 1813, when he was Lord Keith’s second-in-command and responsible for the naval effort in support of Wellington’s army along the North coast of Spain.
Biography
Richard Vesey-Hamilton was born on 28 May 1829, the son of a vicar. He was educated at the Royal Naval School in Camberwell and joined the Royal Navy in July 1843. He twice volunteered to take part in missions to search for Franklyn’s ill-fated expedition to the North-West Passage. He saw action in the Second Opium War of 1857 and served both in the East and the West Indies. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1877 serving at the Admiralty, and later as Commander-in-Chief China Station in 1885. As a full admiral he became Second Naval Lord in 1888 and First Naval Lord in 1889. He became President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1891, retiring from the Royal Navy in 1894 being awarded the GCB in 1895. In retirement he wrote, and died at his home in Chalfont St. Giles on 17 September 1912.
