Admiral Sir Edward Joseph Hamilton, 1st Baronet KCB (22 March 1772 – 21 March 1851) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of admiral.
Family and early life
Hamilton was born on 22 March 1772, the second and younger son of Captain Sir John Hamilton, who was subsequently created a baronet in 1776. Edward Hamilton's mother was Cassandra Agnes, sister of Admiral Charles Chamberlayne. Edward first appeared on the muster books of his father's ship, the 74-gun , in 1777 when he was five years old. He did not actually join the ship until the age of seven, when he came aboard on 21 May 1779 at the rank of midshipman. He sailed with the Hector to the Jamaica station, where he was subsequently lent to . He returned to England after the end of the war and attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. He subsequently returned to active service in 1787, spending the next three years aboard the 74-gun . He took and passed his lieutenant's examination in 1790, after which he moved aboard the 36-gun frigate , under Captain Charles Pole.
Early French Revolutionary Wars
Hamilton then joined the 100-gun , which at that time was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood. He then entered another period of retirement from active service, during which time he studied at the University of Caen, and travelled through both France and Portugal. With the outbreak of war with Revolutionary France in February 1793, Hamilton again returned to active service, being assigned to Lord Howe's flagship, the 100-gun first rate . By July he had moved to his brother, Sir Charles Hamilton's ship, the 28-gun , and was commissioned as a lieutenant on 29 October 1793. While serving on the Dido he helped in the capture of a privateer and her crew. He took a boat, crewed by only eight sailors, and captured the grounded privateer, put out the fire that had been set by her crew to destroy her, and then went ashore to capture her escaped crew. He was later present at the siege of Bastia, and was given command of 100 British and 300 Corsican soldiers at Girolate. Here he constructed a number of batteries within pistol shot of the enemy, from which he was able to subject them to continuous bombardment. The enemy surrendered after 13 days under fire.
He returned to the Victory on 10 July 1794, being appointed her ninth lieutenant. Admiral Hood showed him special favour, though, when he exercised his right to promote whom he wished, and on 7 October he appointed Hamilton as Victorys first lieutenant. It was not long before Hood was ordered to return to Britain though, and after his arrival he struck his flag to spend the winter ashore. With Hood gone, Victory returned to being a private ship, and Hamilton returned to being a junior lieutenant. Hamilton and the Victory were back at sea in 1795, returning to the Mediterranean. He was present at the Naval Battle of Hyères Islands on 13 July 1795, shortly after which Admiral Jervis arrived to take command of the fleet. Jervis promoted Hamilton to commander on 11 February 1796, and appointed him to the fireship with orders to sail to the West Indies. Hamilton did so, returning to Lisbon with dispatches.
Promotion to command
He was again promoted, this time to post-captain on 3 June 1797, and was initially appointed to serve aboard the 114-gun first-rate , which had been captured at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. He was then transferred to the 24-gun , aboard which he sailed to Newfoundland, and then on to Jamaica, where he remained between October 1798 and January 1800, serving with the squadrons under Sir Hyde Parker. He was a particularly effective frigate captain, capturing or destroying over 80 armed vessels, privateers and merchants, bringing in an estimated £200,000 in prize money. It was while serving with Parker that Hamilton carried out the most famous act of his career, the cutting-out of the former from the Spanish port of Puerto Cabello.
