Henry Blackwood

Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, 1st Baronet, GCH, KCB (28 December 1770 – 13 December 1832), whose burial site and memorial are in Killyleagh Parish Church, was an Irish officer of the British Royal Navy.

Early life Blackwood was the fourth son of Sir John Blackwood, 2nd Baronet, of Ballyleidy (later renamed Clandeboye), County Down, and of Dorcas Blackwood, 1st Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye. In April 1781 he entered the Royal Navy as a volunteer on board the frigate HMS Artois, with Captain John MacBride, and in her was present at the Battle on the Dogger Bank.

With the frigates

He was promoted lieutenant, commander, and to the rank of post captain. From August 1795 to April 1796 he was captain of the floating battery in the Humber. He was then appointed to the frigate HMS Brilliant, of 28 guns. Early in 1798 Brilliant was sent out to join Admiral Waldegrave on the Newfoundland Station; and on 26 July, whilst standing close into the bay of Santa Cruz in quest of a French privateer, she observed the frigates Vertu and Régénérée preparing to sail for Rochefort. At 6, the French frigates put to sail and started firing on Brilliant; Régénérée was closing in to her opponent when Vertu, which had sailed large, touched the wind; Régénérée imitated her manoeuver, but lost her mizzen and bowsprit, allowing Brilliant to flee. Vertu gave chase, but could not overhaul her opponent and returned to Tenerife. There, Régénérée replaced her rigging, and both frigates eventually arrived in Rochefort on 5 September. Elsewhere Cheape describes the conflict between Blackwood and Lord Keith when in November 1813, Cheape says he wrote that Lord Melville ordered a line of battleships to the "Western Islands", and wanted Warspite to be among them. Lord Keith, however, advised Captain Blackwood, "that he could not possibly send him as he had orders to send another ship" and sent his friend Captain West's ship instead. Captain Blackwood then sent a "private letter to Lord Keith – saying he wished Warspite to have the preference before any other ship – when showed the letter to Lord Keith he would not read it – so I suppose they don't speak now." This caused Blackwood to resign his command immediately after a continuous active service of six years.

Rear admiral On 4 June 1814, Blackwood attained the rank of rear-admiral for his conduct of the heads of royal families of Europe to England following the defeat of Napoleon. In August 1819 he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, and appointed commander-in-chief of the East Indies Station, nearly suffering a shipwreck in Leander on his way there off the coast of Madeira. He returned from this station in December 1822. He became vice-admiral in May 1825, and from 1827 to 1830 he was Commander-in-Chief, The Nore. During this period, he lived at Blackwood House, 6 Cornwall Terrace, Regent's Park, London.

Later life From 1830 to his death he served as a Groom of the Bedchamber to King William IV.

He died after a short illness, differently stated as typhus or scarlet fever, on 13 December 1832, at Ballyleidy, the seat of his eldest brother, Lord Dufferin and Claneboye. He was interred in the family vault in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland parish church St John the Evangelist in Killyleagh, County Down. The church also houses a marble wall memorial and a stained-glass window to his memory. There is also a marble wall plaque at Westminster Abbey by William Behnes.

Blackwood was married three times and left a large family.

The Blackwood River, in Western Australia, is named in his honour; it was named by Captain (later Admiral Sir) James Stirling, who served under Blackwood as a youth from 1808 to 1810.

The region of Blackwood in Adelaide South Australia was named by William Light who served with him during the Napoleonic Wars