Sydney Dacres

Admiral Sir Sydney Colpoys Dacres GCB (9 January 1804 – 8 March 1884) was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the Greek War of Independence, when he was involved in an attack on the Turkish forces at Morea, and later during the Crimean War. Born into a substantial naval dynasty during the Napoleonic Wars, he eventually rose to the rank of Admiral and became First Naval Lord. His only significant action as First Naval Lord was to press for the abolition of masts. He went on to be Visitor and Governor of Greenwich Hospital.

Sir Sydney Colpoys Dacres
Admiral Sir Sydney Dacres
Born9 January 1804[1]
Totnes, Devon, England[2]
Died8 March 1884(1884-03-08) (aged 80)
Steyning, Sussex
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service1817–1874
RankAdmiral
Commands heldHMS Salamander
HMS St Vincent
HMS Leander
HMS Sans Pareil
Battles/warsCrimean War
AwardsOfficier of the Legion of Honour
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
RelationsRichard Dacres (father)
Sir Richard James Dacres (brother)
James Richard Dacres (uncle)
Barrington Dacres (cousin)
James Richard Dacres (cousin)

Early career
The first-rate, HMS St Vincent, which Dacres commanded. Painted by Charles Dixon

Dacres was born in 1804, the son of Captain, later Vice-Admiral, Sir Richard Dacres and Martha Phillips Milligan.[3][4] The Dacres had a long history of naval service, Sydney's uncle, James Richard Dacres, was a vice-admiral, while his cousins Barrington Dacres and James Richard Dacres would both serve in the navy, the former becoming a post-captain, the latter a vice-admiral.[5] His father, Richard Dacres, had served with Sir Sidney Smith as his flag captain aboard HMS Pompee during his Mediterranean campaign, and under Captain Sir John Colpoys, while Colpoys was commander of HMS Hannibal and HMS London.[3] His elder brother Sir Richard James Dacres was a field marshal in the British Army and was also awarded the GCB.[1]

Sydney joined the Royal Navy in 1817 at the age of 12, and after serving for ten years, was promoted to lieutenant on 5 May 1827, initially aboard the 46-gun HMS Blonde under Captain Edmund Lyons.[6] On 18 October Lieutenant Dacres was involved in an attack on the Turkish forces at Morea, during the Greek War of Independence. He and other lieutenants from Blonde, working in company with French naval forces, landed guns and helped to build batteries.[7]

Dacres was promoted to commander on 28 August 1834, being appointed to his first command, the paddle sloop HMS Salamander on 16 August 1836.[8] He was promoted to post-captain on 1 August 1840 and duly relinquished command of the Salamander on 15 September 1840.[8] He was briefly appointed to command HMS Avenger in 1847,[9] before taking over command of the 120-gun first rate HMS St Vincent, from 16 November 1847.[8] The St Vincent was at that time the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Charles John Napier, commander of the Channel Fleet. Dacres took command of the 50-gun frigate HMS Leander on 28 September 1849, commissioning her at Portsmouth and joining a Squadron of Evolution. He commanded the Leander until 3 June 1852, when he was shifted to the screw-propelled second rate HMS Sans Pareil.[10] He took command on 8 June 1852, commissioning her at Plymouth and sailing her to Lisbon. She spent 1853 as part of the Channel squadron, then with the outbreak of the Crimean War Dacres sailed to the Black Sea in 1854 to support operations.[11] Dacres remained in command until 22 November 1854, when he was succeeded by Acting-Captain Leopold George Heath.[12] He was appointed a Companion of the Bath on 5 July 1855,[13] and on 30 April 1857 he was among the British officers who fought in the Crimea who received permission from Queen Victoria to accept the award of Officer of the Legion of Honour.[14]

Senior command
The Royal Hospital Haslar where Dacres was Captain-Superintendent

Dacres then moved ashore, becoming Captain-Superintendent of the Royal Hospital Haslar and the Royal Clarence (Gosport) Victualling Yard in July 1855,[15] a post he held until 25 June 1858, the date he was promoted to rear-admiral.[16] He became Captain of the fleet aboard HMS Marlborough to the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet on 12 September 1859, serving under Vice-Admiral Arthur Fanshawe, and then Vice-Admiral William Fanshawe Martin. In April 1861 he flew his flag on HMS Caesar[17] then from 16 December 1861 Dacres became second in command in the Mediterranean, flying his flag aboard HMS Edgar.[8] He then became commander in chief of the Channel Squadron on 24 April 1863, a post he held until June 1866 and during which he oversaw the integration of the new ironclads into the fleet.[18] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath on 28 March 1865,[19] and promoted to vice-admiral on 17 November 1865, while in command of the Channel Squadron.[20]

Dacres became a Commissioner of the Admiralty and Second Naval Lord on 12 July 1866,[21] rising to be the First Naval Lord on 18 December 1868. He was promoted to admiral on 1 April 1870,[22] and was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath on 20 May 1871.[23] His only significant action as First Naval Lord was to press for the abolition of masts.[8] He stepped down as First Naval Lord on 27 November 1872, becoming Visitor and Governor of Greenwich Hospital on 2 December that year.[24] He was placed on the retired list on 10 January 1874.[25]

Family and personal life

Dacres married Emma Lambert on 1 October 1840 at St Pancras New Church.[4] She gave birth to a son at Batheaston on 3 December 1845.[26] This was followed by the birth of a daughter on 10 January 1849 at Bath. His daughter Minna Winifred married, as her second husband, Admiral Sir John Ommanney Hopkins.[27][28] Sydney Dacres died on 8 March 1884.[29]

See also
  • O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). "Dacres, Sidney Colpoys" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary . John Murray – via Wikisource.
  • List of British recipients of the Légion d'Honneur for the Crimean War

Notes
  1. Foster, Joseph (1883). The peerage, baronetage, and knightage of the British Empire : for 1882. Westminster [London, Eng.]: Nichols and Sons. p. 710. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  2. 1881 England Census
  3. Tracy. Who's who in Nelson's Navy. p. 109.
  4. Burke (1841). Annual Register. p. 139.
  5. Tracy. Who's who in Nelson's Navy. p. 108.
  6. Eardley-Wilmot. Life of Vice-Admiral Edmund, Lord Lyons. p. 37.
  7. Marshall. Royal Naval Biography. p. 387.
  8. Laughton, J. K. (2004). "Dacres, Sir Sydney Colpoys (1805–1884)". In Lambert, Andrew (ed.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6997. Retrieved 31 December 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. The Gentleman's Magazine. 1847. p. 540.
  10. The Admiralty (1852). THE NEW NAVY LIST. p. 246.
  11. House of Commons. Parliamentary Papers. p. 250.
  12. Lambert. The Crimean War. p. 195.
  13. "No. 21743". The London Gazette. 10 July 1855. p. 2654.
  14. "No. 21996". The London Gazette. 1 May 1857. p. 1573.
  15. The Admiralty (1856). The Navy List. p. 199.
  16. "No. 22157". The London Gazette. 29 June 1858. p. 3090.
  17. 1861 Census of England
  18. The Son of an Old Naval Officer. Captain Coles and the Admiralty. p. 15.
  19. "No. 22952". The London Gazette. 28 March 1865. p. 1731.
  20. "No. 23042". The London Gazette. 24 November 1865. p. 5690.
  21. "No. 23137". The London Gazette. 13 July 1866. p. 3985.
  22. "No. 23603". The London Gazette. 1 April 1870. p. 2006.
  23. "No. 23739". The London Gazette. 20 May 1871. p. 2473.
  24. "No. 23925". The London Gazette. 3 December 1872. p. 6104.
  25. "No. 24053". The London Gazette. 13 January 1874. p. 136.
  26. Dodsley (1846). Annual Register. p. 210.
  27. Burke, Sir Bernard, ed. (1914). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (76th ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2349.
  28. The Gentleman's Magazine. 1849. p. 198.
  29. "No. 25372". The London Gazette. 1 July 1884. p. 3027.

References
  • Laughton, J. K. (2004). "Dacres, Sir Sydney Colpoys (1805–1884)". In rev. Andrew Lambert (ed.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6997. Retrieved 21 September 2007. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Tracy, Nicholas (2006). Who's who in Nelson's Navy: 200 Naval Heroes. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-244-5.
  • Lambert, Andrew D. (1991). The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy, 1853-56. Manchester University Press ND. ISBN 0-7190-3564-3.
  • Edmund Burke, ed. (1841). Annual Register. Vol. 82. London: F. J. F. & J. Rivington.
  • Dodsley, James (1846). Annual Register. Vol. 87. London: F. & J. Rivington.
  • Urban, Sylvanus (1847). Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. 182. London: F. Jefferies.
  • Urban, Sylvanus (1849). Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. 1856. London: F. Jefferies.
  • Allen, Joseph (1852). The New Navy List and General Record of the Service of Officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. London: Parker, Furnivall and Parker.
  • The Navy List. Vol. 186. London: H.M. Stationery Office. 1856.
  • The Son of an Old Naval Officer (1866). Captain Coles and the Admiralty: With an Inquiry into the Origin and Qualities of the Turret System of Armour-Clad War Vessels. Longmans, Green, and Co.
  • House of Commons (1855). Parliamentary Papers. Vol. 9, pt. 2. HMSO.
  • Marshall, John (1829). Royal Naval Biography, Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-officers, Superannuated Rear-admirals, Retired-captains, Post-captains, and Commanders, Whose Names Appeared on the Admiralty List of Sea Officers at the Commencement of the Present Year, Or who Have Since Been Promoted. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green.
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