George Johnstone Hope

Rear-Admiral Sir George Johnstone Hope, KCB, KSO (6 July 1767 – 2 May 1818) was a British naval officer, who served with distinction in the Royal Navy throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, including service at the Battle of Trafalgar. A close personal friend of Admiral Nelson, he received many honours following the battle, and later served as a Lord of the Admiralty. Early life Born the son of The Hon. Charles Hope-Weir, and grandson of Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun, Hope joined the navy at 15, in 1782, and spent much of his early career serving on frigates. He was promoted from midshipman to lieutenant on 29 February 1788 and was given command of his own sloop, HMS Racehorse on 22 November 1790. War service At the time of Britain's entry into the war, as part of the First Coalition, Hope was serving as commander in the sloop HMS Bulldog in the Mediterranean Sea, and conducted several convoys to the forces of Lord Hood, who was besieging Toulon at the time. Later in the year, on 13 September 1793, he was promoted to the rank of Post Captain, and in August 1794, given command of the large frigate HMS Romulus, in which he saw action against French ships off Genoa in 1795. Following his appointment to HMS Alcmene, Hope joined Nelson at Aboukir bay, 11 days after the battle of the Nile. On 19 August Nelson left for Naples but left Hood with three 3rd rates and three frigates, including Alcmene, with which to blockade Alexandria, where the remaining French ships; two of the line, eight frigates and four corvettes, were sheltering. Hope obtained Nelson's good graces by capturing the French gunbrig Légère off Egypt, and seizing dispatches intended for Napoleon. The papers had been thrown overboard by the French captain but two of Alcmene's crew jumped in to retrieve them. Hope then sailed to Naples and successfully evacuated the Neapolitan royal family in the face of a Republican uprising, which was eventually quelled by Nelson's personal intervention.