Richard Dacres

Sir Richard Dacres (September 1761 – 22 January 1837) was an officer of the British Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. A member of a substantial naval dynasty, he eventually rose to the rank of vice admiral.

Family and early life Richard Dacres was born in September 1761, the fifth son of Richard and Mary Dacres, and younger brother to James Richard Dacres. The Dacres would eventually become a substantial naval dynasty; James Richard rose to be a vice-admiral, his son Barrington became a post-captain, and James became a vice-admiral. Richard's own son Sydney would eventually be an admiral, and First Sea Lord.

Dacres then served aboard , flagship of Sir Charles Hardy, Commander-in Chief of the Channel Fleet. Hardy promoted Dacres to lieutenant into the frigate , under Captain the Honourable William Finch, with whom he sailed to the West Indies in early 1780. On 10/11 October 1780 Amazon narrowly escaped destruction during a violent hurricane, having to cut down her masts and throw her guns and anchors overboard to prevent the ship from capsizing. Twenty of her crew were drowned or badly hurt. On 31 October he was appointed post captain on the 20-gun , which formed part of Richard Strachan's squadron in the English Channel.

In early 1797, Dacres took command of the frigate . He managed to slip away from the mutiny at the Nore, and then escorted a fleet of valuable merchant ships to the Baltic. He captured numerous French and Dutch privateers over the next two years. Astrea was paid off in 1799, and Dacres was again unemployed until early 1801, when he was appointed to command of the 80-gun , accompanying Sir Robert Calder in his voyage to the Caribbean, following Ganteaume's escape from Brest. On his return to England, he was appointed to the 68-gun , guard ship at Spithead, remaining there until the cessation of hostilities in early 1802. He then sailed to Jamaica in with the squadron under Sir George Campbell, but ill-health soon forced him to return home. On the renewal of the war in 1803, Dacres was appointed to command of the Sea Fencibles at Dartmouth. Dacres then returned to England after Pompees recall, arriving in June 1807. He was then ordered to take the Pompee to join Vice-Admiral Henry Stanhope's squadron for service in the second expedition to Copenhagen. on the Retired List, He was nominated a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order on 25 January 1836, and died at Balibroke Villas, near Bath, Somerset on 22 January 1837 at the age of 75.

Family and personal life In 1788 he married Martha Phillips Milligan, while Sydney Colpoys Dacres (1805–1884), went on to be an admiral and First Naval Lord. His eldest daughter Martha married Rear Admiral Sir William Fairbrother Carrol in 1813, while the younger, Mary, married Lieutenant Colonel Henry Stephen Olivier in 1823.