Thomas Herbert

Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Herbert, KCB (February 1793 – 4 August 1861), was a British Royal Navy officer. He served in the Napoleonic Wars, War of 1812, and First Anglo-Chinese War. From 1847 to 1849, he was commodore of the South East Coast of America Station. Herbert served as Member of Parliament for Dartmouth as a Conservative from 1852 to 1857.

Early career Herbert was born in County Kerry, Ireland, in February 1793 as the second son of Richard Townsend Herbert, esquire of Cahirnane, County Kerry (where the Herbert family had been seated since the reign of King Charles II), and his wife Jane, daughter of Anthony Stoughton, esquire of Ballyhorgan. Among his ancestors was Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, who was beheaded with his brother William, Earl of Pembroke at Banbury, the day after the Battle of Edgecote Moor on 26 July 1469. He was mentioned in the dispatches of Sir James Gordon for his ability and exertions displayed throughout the operations on the Potomac River, including the capture of Fort Washington and Raid on Alexandria. After serving in over twenty engagements and being wounded three times, he was promoted to commander on 19 October 1814. He did not take up his commission until February 1815, and he remained on half-pay until 6 September 1821. The ships fired on the island's lower fort of sixteen guns facing the sea, and silenced the Chinese batteries in less than an hour.

In the Battle of First Bar on 27 February, Herbert, while in Calliope, also had Herald, Alligator, HMS Sulphur, HMS Modeste, and the steamers Madagascar and Nemesis under his command. The ships cannonaded the Chinese war junks and batteries, which protected their strongly entrenched camp. In an hour, when the Chinese artillery was nearly silenced, he landed with the seamen and marines, and stormed the works, driving before them over 2,000 Chinese troops and killing nearly 300. The forts were under British possession half an hour later. He participated in further campaigns in capturing the forts leading towards Canton. From June to July 1841, he was senior officer in the Canton River, and on the arrival of Sir William Parker, Herbert was moved to HMS Blenheim, in which he took part in the capture of Amoy and Chusan, and commanded the naval brigade at the capture of Chinhai. and a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath on 14 October.

Later career Herbert returned to England by the Cape of Good Hope, thus completing a circumnavigation of the globe, and paid off Blenheim in March 1843. On 11 January 1847, he was employed as commodore on the South East Coast of America Station until 1849, with a broad pennant on HMS Raleigh. From February to December 1852, he was Third Naval Lord under Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 8 December 1857. He received a good service pension in 1849. A Conservative, he opposed "further concessions to the Roman Catholics", and was against re-imposing an import duty on corn. He unsuccessfully contested that borough in 1859. he died on 4 August 1861 in Cadogan Place, Chelsea, London.