Henry John Rous

Admiral Henry John Rous (23 January 1795 – 19 June 1877) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served in the Napoleonic Wars.

Biography

Family background and education Rous was the second son of John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke, and was educated at Westminster School, and Dr. Burney's Academy. His elder brother was John Rous, 2nd Earl of Stradbroke, and his half-sister married Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Hotham.

Naval career Aged just 13, Rous entered the Navy on 28 January 1808 as first-class volunteer on board the , under the command of Captain the Honourable Courtenay Boyle, and the flagship of Sir George Montagu, the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. In February 1809, he moved into the 74-gun , Captain the Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge. After taking part in the Walcheren Campaign, in November 1809 he became a midshipman aboard , flagship of Sir James Saumarez in the Baltic. In March 1811, he joined , Captain John Gore, employed off Lisbon and in the Channel and, from December 1811, he served in the frigate , Captain William Hoste, taking part in the Adriatic campaign. The area between those rivers is known as Rous County, although counties are not widely recognised in Australia and are mainly used for cadastral purposes. While in Moreton Bay, he named the Rous Channel, Dunwich, and Stradbroke Island, after his family titles, and influenced the naming of Ipswich, Queensland.

Rous returned to England in August 1829 and, from November 1834, commanded the frigate .

Thoroughbred horse racing

His father owned a stud farm in Suffolk and won the 1815 2,000 Guineas with the colt Tigris. Rous, always fond of the sport, became a steward of the Jockey Club in 1838, a position he held, almost uninterrupted, until his death. In 1855, he was appointed public handicapper. In that role he introduced the weight-for-age scale. For many years, he managed the stables of the Duke of Bedford at Newmarket, and wrote On the Laws and Practice of Horse Racing that procured for him the title of the Blackstone of the Turf. The appointment triggered a by-election, which Rous lost to the Liberal candidate, George de Lacy Evans, whom he had defeated in 1841. and to admiral on the Retired List on 6 June 1863.

Admiral Rous died at 13 Berkeley Square in London on 19 June 1877.