Admiral of the Red George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, (7 January 1746 – 10 March 1823) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Contents
Early life
George Keith Elphinstone was born on 7 January 1746 at Elphinstone Tower in Scotland. He was the fifth son of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone and his wife Lady Clementina Fleming, the daughter and heiress of John Fleming, 6th Earl of Wigtown. Of Elphinstone's elder brothers, three joined the British military while the fourth, William, joined the East India Company as a sea captain. Elphinstone studied at a grammar school in Glasgow before joining the Royal Navy on 4 November 1761 as a midshipman onboard HMS Royal Sovereign. He transferred to HMS Gosport on 1 January 1762.
Serving in Gosport on the North American Station during the Seven Years' War's final years, Elphinstone served in the campaign to drive out French forces from the Newfoundland Colony which culminated in the Battle of Signal Hill on 15 September. At the end of the year Gosport sailed back to Britain, and in March 1763 Elphinstone left her to join HMS Juno. He stayed in Juno only briefly, transferring from her to HMS Lively after two months. As part of the Mediterranean Fleet, Elphinstone served in Lively until January 1765, at which point he went on leave at home. His leave over, Elphinstone was next appointed to serve on HMS Emerald in August 1766.
In December Elphinstone obtained permission to leave Emerald and join William onboard the East Indiaman Tryton as third mate on a voyage to China. The two brothers' uncle, Lord Marischal, lent each man £2,000 for the journey, which took place over the course of 1767. In December 1769 Elphinstone joined HMS Stag and was promoted to lieutenant on 28 June 1770. He returned to England four months later and began serving on HMS Trident, which went to the Mediterranean. Once Trident returned home Elphinstone was promoted to master and commander and given command of HMS Scorpion on 18 September 1772. He returned with her to the Mediterranean and stayed there until ordered back in April 1774, making a brief cruise to Scotland.
American War of Independence
On 11 March 1775, just before the American War of Independence broke out, Elphinstone was promoted to post-captain and made captain of HMS Romney. He set sail from England in June to serve in the Newfoundland Station and returned with Romney in mid-November with a merchant convoy. On 8 March 1776 he transferred to HMS Perseus and went to North America in July, capturing the American privateer Viper on 27 September before joining a squadron which went to Antigua to refit over the winter. Perseus captured the American privateer Defence on 2 April 1777 and another one, Sachem, three days later; Elphinstone captured another American privateer, America, on 11 October 1779 and the French privateer Thérèse on 22 November. During the siege of Charleston Elphinstone commanded a 450-strong naval brigade on 11 May 1780; he returned to England in late May and Perseus was paid off in June.
On 22 July 1780 Elphinstone was made captain of HMS Warwick and captured the Dutch ship of the line Rotterdam on 5 January 1781. In the same year he was elected to the House of Commons for Dunbartonshire. On 27 March Elphinstone began escorting a merchant convoy from Cork, Ireland to North America and Warwick remained on the North American Station, and he served as a governor to Prince William Henry in New York City. Elphinstone captured the American privateer Elizabeth on 18 May and another, Greyhound, on 11 August. In the action of 15 September 1782 a squadron he commanded captured the 36-gun French frigate Aigle in the Delaware Bay. Elphinstone returned to New York and due to his poor health transferred his captaincy to HMS Carysfort on 29 October and returned in November. Elphinstone stopped being captain of Carysfort on 3 January 1783 and served as HMS Robust's captain from 29 January until 30 August. Following the war's end on 3 September 1783 he remained ashore on half-pay for almost a decade, sitting in Parliament until 1790; was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in the same year.
French Revolutionary Wars
Following Revolutionary France's declaration of war against Britain on 1 February 1793, Elphinstone was again appointed as Robust's captain, taking part in the occupation of Toulon under Vice-Admiral of the Red Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood in August 1793. When the French Revolutionary Army laid siege to the city, Elphinstone distinguished himself by leading an Anglo-Spanish naval brigade to victory over a French force. When Toulon was evacuated in December, he embarked a number of French Royalist civilians as refugees. Elphinstone was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 12 April 1794, hoisting his flag on the 98-gun ship of the line HMS Glory, and 30 May he was invested as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath by George III as a reward for his actions in Toulon.
Elphinstone missed the Glorious First of June as he was not aboard Glory and was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the White on 5 July. He transferred his flag to the 98-gun ship of the line HMS Barfleur in August before transferring again to the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Monarch on 14 March 1795 On 3 April 1795 Elphinstone set sail from England at the head of an invasion force with orders to occupy the Dutch Cape Colony; he arrived in June (and was promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 1 June) and the colony surrendered in September. Elphinstone proceeded to establish the Cape of Good Hope Station, serving as its first commander-in-chief until 1796. He also received a large share of the prize money gained from the colony's capture and went to India, but began suffering health problems there. Elphinstone then decided to return to England and during the voyage home he forced the bloodless surrender of a Batavian Navy squadron sent to retake the Cape Colony at the capitulation of Saldanha Bay on 17 August 1796. In the same year, Elphinston was again elected to the House of Commons for Stirlingshire.
Following Elphinstone's return to England the Nore mutiny broke out in 1797 and he was appointed to command the British naval forces in the area and soon restored order. Elphinstone was subsequently set to Plymouth and restored order in the squadron stationed there as well; for these actions he was made Baron Keith in the Irish peerage in the same year. In late 1798 he was sent as second-in-command to the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral of the White Lord St Vincent. Keith's new role was marked by difficulties due to St Vincent's poor health and arbitrary decision making, while Rear-Admiral of the Red Sir Horatio Nelson, also stationed in the Mediterranean, viewed Keith's appointment as a personal slight and was repeatedly insubordinate. On 14 February 1799 Keith was promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Red and in May he proved unable to counter a French expedition under Vice-admiral Étienne Eustache Bruix, mostly due to disputes with other British naval officers. Keith followed Bruix' expedition to Brest on its retreat, but was unable to bring the French to battle.
Napoleonic Wars and death
Keith was made Baron Keith in the British peerage in 1801, and the French Revolutionary Wars were ended in April 1802 by the Peace of Amiens. However, after the renewal of war with France in May 1803 Keith was appointed Commander-in-Chief, North Sea, holding the post until 1807. On 18 July 1805 he unsuccessfully attacked a Franco-Batavian naval force at the Battle of Blanc-Nez and Gris-Nez and on 9 November Keith was promoted to Admiral of the White. He was promoted again to Admiral of the Red on 31 July 1810 and in February 1812 Keith was appointed commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet before being raised to a viscountcy in 1814. During his last two commands Keith was engaged first in overseeing the measures taken to meet a threatened French invasion, and then in directing the movements of the numerous British squadrons and privateers active off the Spanish and Portuguese coasts and in protecting British trade.
Keith was at Plymouth when Napoleon surrendered to HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815 and was brought to the English coastline. On 31 July Keith went aboard Bellerophon and informed Napoleon that the British government had decided he was to be exiled to the colony of Saint Helena. Keith refused to be led into disputes, and confined himself to declaring steadily that he had his orders to obey. He was not much impressed by the appearance of his illustrious charge and thought that the airs of Napoleon and his suite were ridiculous. Keith died on 1823 at Tulliallan Castle, near Kincardine-on-Forth, Fife, his property in Scotland, and was buried in the parish church.
Personal life and legacy
He was twice married: in 1787 to Jane Mercer, daughter of Colonel William Mercer of Aldie, and in 1808 to Hester Maria Thrale, daughter of Henry Thrale and Hester Thrale, who is spoken of as 'Queeney' in Boswell's Life of Johnson and in Madame d'Arblay's Diary. He had a daughter by each marriage, the second being Georgina Augusta Henrietta, but no son. Thus the viscountcy became extinct on his death, but the British and Irish baronies descended to his elder daughter Margaret (1788–1867), who married the Comte de Flahault, only to become extinct on her death.
A portrait of him by Owen is in the Painted Hall in Greenwich and another by George Sanders in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. He was initiated into Scottish Freemasonry in Lodge Holyrood House (St Luke's), No. 44, on 16 June 1769. Keith and his wife 'Queeney' appear in several of the novels in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series. He is also mentioned in passing in Robert Brightwell's novel Flashman and the Seawolf, based loosely on the exploits of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (as is, in part, the character of Jack Aubrey).