Overview

Sir George Cockburn emerged from the Napoleonic War the best-known British admiral since Nelson. He first came to public notice for his part in the British attack on Washington in 1814. He also escorted Napoleon to St Helena after Waterloo. His greatest impact was as the Admiralty Commissioner who presided over much of the transition of the British navy from sail to steam between 1818 and 1846. This work examines the career of a formidable personality who maintained the interests and professionalism of the British navy through one of the most difficult periods of political and technological evolution. The book provides an insight into the conduct of the British Admiralty, and offers a contribution to 19th-century naval history as it is concerned with the administration of the service in a period of peace.

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9780859895262

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Reviews

This is a very valuable book, and Cockburn will not likely need another biographer in our lifetimes. The Northern Mariner Vol. VIII, No. 4 1998 This well-researched and carefully written biography will be of particular interest to specialists in the 19th-century Royal Navy, but its examination of the impact of national politics on naval administration and individual reputations gives it wider appeal. Naval History 199812 ... thorough, scholarly and closely based on the documents ... This is very much an official Life, for not much survives to illuminate the private man, and he seems, perhaps unavoidably, somewhat colourless - but it is nevertheless a life full of interest and importance, not only for the British Navy in transition , but for the political and social life of the era. Times Literary Supplement 19980626

Author Information

Roger Morriss was a Curator at the National Maritime Museum, London until 1995. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the University of Exeter Centre for Maritime Studies, and in the History Department, University College London.

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