Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel

Admiral of the White Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, PC (25 April 17252 October 1786) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1755 to 1782. He saw action in command of various ships, including the fourth-rate , during the War of the Austrian Succession. He went on to serve as Commodore on the North American Station and then Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station during the Seven Years' War. After that he served as Senior Naval Lord and then Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet.

During the American War of Independence Keppel came into a notorious dispute with Sir Hugh Palliser over Palliser's conduct as his second-in-command at the inconclusive Battle of Ushant in July 1778; the dispute led to Keppel and Palliser facing courts martial, which acquitted both of them. During the final years of the American War of Independence Keppel served as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Early life

A member of a leading Whig aristocratic family (which had come to England with William of Orange in 1688), Augustus Keppel was the second son of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle and, Anne van Keppel, a daughter of the 1st Duke of Richmond (himself an illegitimate son of King Charles II). Educated briefly at Westminster School, Keppel went to sea at the age of ten, and had already five years of service to his credit when he was appointed to and sent with Lord Anson round the world in 1740. He transferred to the sixth-rate in December 1744, to the fifth-rate in February 1745 and the fourth-rate in November 1745. (with his pennant in his old ship HMS Centurion intending to persuade the Dey of Algiers to restrain the piratical operations of his subjects is now in the National Gallery where there is also one by him of Keppel's mother along with others of officers of the British garrison there. Keppel concluded an agreement with the Dey of Algiers which protected British commerce. After negotiating treaties at Tripoli and Tunis, Keppel returned to England in July 1751. He was on the coast of France in 1756 and was detached on an expedition to conquer Gorée, a French island off the west coast of Africa in 1758. His ship, Torbay (74), was the first to get into action in the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759. He was a member of the Board of Admiralty in the First Rockingham ministry from July 1765 and was Senior Naval Lord in the Chatham ministry from September 1766 until leaving the Admiralty Board in December 1766. In 1768 he acquired Elveden Hall in Suffolk. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Red on 18 October 1770, Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 24 October. When the Falklands Crisis of 1770 occurred in November 1770 he was to have commanded the fleet to be sent against Spain, but a settlement was reached, and he had no occasion to hoist his flag. (having been earlier promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Red on 3 February 1776) and appointed to command the Western Squadron, the main fleet prepared against France, he thought the First Lord would be glad for him to be defeated.

One of Keppel's subordinate admirals was Sir Hugh Palliser, a member of the Admiralty Board, a member of parliament, and in Keppel's opinion responsible with his colleagues for the bad state of the Royal Navy. The battle which Keppel fought with the French on 27 July 1778 (the First Battle of Ushant) ended badly. Reasons included Keppel's own management, but also the failure of Palliser to obey orders. Keppel became convinced that he had been deliberately betrayed.

Political career

Following the fall of the North ministry on 27 March 1782 Keppel became First Lord of the Admiralty, was raised to the peerage as Viscount Keppel, of Elveden in the County of Suffolk, and sworn of the Privy Council. He was promoted to his final rank of Admiral of the White in April 1782. Keppel's career in office was not distinguished, and he broke with his old political associates by resigning as a protest against the Peace of Paris. He finally discredited himself by joining the Coalition ministry formed by Lord North and Charles James Fox, and with its fall disappeared from public life in December 1783.

Legacy Great Keppel Island and Keppel Bay in Australia, and Keppel Island in the Falkland Islands are named after Keppel. Keppel's Column in Rotherham was constructed to mark his acquittal.