Hastings Yelverton

Admiral Sir Hastings Reginald Yelverton, (born Hastings Reginald Henry; 21 March 1808 – 24 July 1878) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he took part in a major action against pirates off Candia in June 1826 and was involved in protecting British interests during the Portuguese Civil War during the early 1830s. He saw action in the Crimean War as Captain of one of the two ships that captured a Russian barque beneath the batteries at Ekenäs in Finland in May 1854. Then in July 1873 he took part in the suppression of the Cantonal Revolution in Cartagena. He became First Naval Lord in September 1876 and in that role implemented a series of economies demanded by the Disraeli ministry but was also involved in ordering the small, cheap and thoroughly unsuccessful ironclad Ajax-class battleships. Early career Born the son of John Joseph Henry (of Straffan) and Lady Emily Elizabeth FitzGerald (daughter of William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster), Hastings Henry, as he then was, entered the Royal Navy as a first-class volunteer aboard the frigate HMS Sybulle in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1823. He took part in a major action against pirates off Candia in June 1826 and subsequently served as a midshipman and mate in the brig HMS Columbine, the frigate HMS Undaunted and then the battleship HMS St Vincent in home waters. Promoted lieutenant on 18 December 1830, Henry was posted to the second-rate HMS Asia, flagship of Sir William Parker, in September 1831. HMS Asia was then based at Lisbon, protecting British interests during the Portuguese Civil War. He joined the sixth-rate HMS Rattlesnake on the East Indies Station in December 1834. Promoted to commander on 28 June 1838, he joined the sloop HMS Styx at Sheerness in August 1841 and then took command of the sloop Devastation in the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1841. He became acting captain of the first-rate HMS Queen in the Mediterranean Fleet in May 1842 and acting captain of the fifth-rate HMS Aigle also in the Mediterranean Fleet in April 1843. He was promoted to captain on 5 September 1843 and, following his marriage to Barbara Rawdon-Hastings, Marchioness of Hastings (born Barbara Yelverton), assumed the surname of Yelverton on 3 January 1849.