A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hamond, Graham Eden
HAMOND, Bart., K.C.B., K.C.T.S. (Admiral of the Blue, 1847. f-p., 28; h-p., 34.)
Sir Graham Eden Hamond, born 30 Dec. 1779, in London, is only son of the late Sir Andw. Snape Hamond, Bart., F.R.S., Captain R.N.,[1] by Anne, daughter and heiress of Henry Graeme, Esq., of Hanwell, co. Middlesex, a Major in the Army, who was severely wounded at the battle of Minden, when a Captain in the 37th Regt., in 1759, and died Lieutenant-Governor of St. Helena in 1786. He is uncle of the present Viscount Hood; and succeeded his father as second Baronet 12 Sept. 1828.
This officer entered the Navy, 3 Sept. 1785, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Irresistible 74, on the books of which ship, bearing the broad pendant of his father in the river Medway, his name appears to have been borne until March, 1790. In Jan. 1793, after a further servitude with Sir A. S. Hamond, as Midshipman, in the Vanguard and Bedford 74’s, and Duke 98, he joined the Phaeton 38, commanded by his cousin Sir Andw. Snape Douglas, on the Channel station, where, in the course of the same year, he assisted at the capture of Le Général Dumourier of 22 guns and 196 men, having on board 2,040,000 dollars; her prize, the St. Jago, laden with a cargo worth nearly 300,000l.; La Prompte, frigate, of 28 guns and 180 men; another privateer, of 16 guns and 60 men; and La Blonde national corvette, of 24 guns. Accompanying the last-mentioned officer, in April, 1794, into the Queen Charlotte 100, flag-ship of Earl Howe, Mr. Hamond, besides witnessing the capture of H.M. late ship Castor, and of other vessels, had an opportutunity of sharing in the triumph achieved by the British on 1 of the ensuing June. In June, 1795, having previously acted for a short period as Lieutenant of the Aquilon 32, Capt. Robt. Barlow, and Zealous 74, Capt. Christ. Mason, he proceeded overland to the Mediterranean, and there got on board the Britannia 100, bearing the flag of Admiral Wm. Hotham, just in time to behold the destruction of L’Alcide, a 74-gun-ship taken in the action of 13 July. Being confirmed a Lieutenant in the Britannia, by commission dated 19 Oct. in the same year, he subsequently joined, in that capacity, 20 July, 1796, and 11 March, 1797, the Aigle 38, bearing the flag, also in the Mediterranean, of Sir Hyde Parker, and Niger 32, commanded on the Lisbon and Home stations by Capt. Edw. Jas. Foote. While afterwards in the Echo 18, of which sloop he obtained command 20 Oct. 1798, Capt. Hamond destroyed a French cutter privateer, contributed to the capture of 30 large Dutch fishing-vessels, conveyed Prince Frederick of Orange from Yarmouth to Cuxhaven, was for some time employed at the blockade of Havre, and was intrusted on different occasions with the charge of convoys. After a continuance of about 12 months in the Echo, he was made Post, 30 Nov. 1798, into the Champion of 24 guns; in which ship we find him successively engaged in convoying a fleet of merchant-vessels to the Elbe; guarding the mouths of that river, and the Weser, to prevent the enemy’s gun-boats from entering; cruizing off Norway; carrying specie from the river Thames to the British army in Holland; and watching the return of the trade from Archangel. He likewise, on 28 June, 1799, effected the capture of L’Anacréon, a notorious French privateer, of 16 guns and 125 men, and was employed during the early part of 1800 in convoying to Minorca the officers and crew of the captured French ship of the line Le Guillaume Tell as also at the blockade of Malta, where he occasionally served on shore at the siege of La Valette. In July of the latter year, owing to the state of his health, Capt. Hamond exchanged into the Lion 64, and returned with despatches to England, but he had scarcely arrived when he was a,ppointed to commission the Blanche 36; in which frigate, previously to participating in the battle of 2 April, 1801, he embarked at Copenhagen Mr. Drummond, H.B. Majesty’s Minister, and the whole British Factory. On the Sunday following the action, Capt. Hamond had the peculiar satisfaction of holding the Prayer-Book from which Lord Nelson read thanks to Almighty God for the signal victory the British had obtained over their enemies. The. Blanche ultimately returned to England with the flag of Sir Hyde Parker, but was not paid off until 22 Sept. 1802, by which period she had been further employed with activity in the Channel, and had been for many weeks in attendance on George III. off Weymouth. From 21 Feb. to 12 Nov. 1803, Capt. Hamond next commanded the Plantagenet 74, in which ship he contrived to capture Le Courier de Terre Neuve, a French brig privateer of 16 guns and 54 men, and three days afterwards L’Atalante, a beautiful corvette of 22 guns and 120 men. After an interval of half-pay, occasioned by ill health, he joined, 30 July, 1804, the Lively 38. In that frigate, on 5 of the following Oct., he distinguished himself, and had 2 of his men killed and 5 wounded, at the capture, off Cape St. Mary, of three Spanish frigates laden with treasure, and the destruction of a fourth.[2] During a subsequent cruize off Cape St. Vincent, Capt. Hamond captured, on 7 Dec, the San Miguel, a Spanish merchant-ship having on board 196,639 dollars, four cases of wrought plate, 2064 bales of indigo, and other valuable property; and in the course of the same day he was in company with the Polyphemus 64, at the taking of the Santa Gertruyda, a frigate of 36 guns, laden, besides a cargo of the most costly merchandise, with 1,215,000 dollars in specie. All this treasure being however disposed of as droits of Admiralty, not more than a fourth of their proceeds was given to the captors. In March, 1805, the whole of the specie and bullion that had been taken, amounting to 5,000,000 dollars, was intrusted to the sole charge of Capt. Hamond, who brought it all in safety to England, but unfortunately just at a period when the payment of freight-money had been suspended; and he consequently received no remuneration whatever for the tremendous responsibility to which he had been subjected. Not long after this, being off Cadiz, the Lively, on 29 May, 1805, alone, and of her own accord, endured a very spirited skirmish with the Spanish 74-gun ship Glorioso, whom she sorely galled. She next, towards the close of 1805, embarked Gen. Sir Jas. Craig, and accompanied an expedition having for its object the defence of Naples against the threatened and eventually successful invasion of the French. Quitting the Lively in June, 1806, Capt. Hamond was subsequently appointed – 22 Dec. 1808, to the Victorious 74, the command of which ship, after she had assisted at the reduction of Flushing, he resigned in Sept. 1809 – 14 May, 1813, to the Rivoli 74, employed in the Mediterranean, whence he invalided in March 1814 – and 30 March, 1824, to the Wellesley 74, stationed at first as a guard-ship at Portsmouth, and next employed in conveying to the Brazils the present Lord Stuart de Rothesay. Being advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral, while on the latter station, by commission dated 27 May, 1825, he was ordered home in the Spartiate 74, charged with the delivery, en route, of the treaty of separation between Brazil and Portugal to the King of Portugal, who, on its reception, created him a K.C.T.S.; an order, however, which, as it was not obtained for war-service, he has not been permitted to wear. In 1828 Sir Graham Eden Hamond was selected by the Lord High Admiral to succeed the then Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, but the resignation of office of H.R.H. did not allow the arrangements to mature. His last employment was on the South American station, where, with his flag successively in the Spartiate 76, and Dublin 50, he commanded in chief from 16 Sept. 1834, until 17 May, 1838. His attainment of the rank of Vice-Admiral took place 10 Jan. 1837, and of that of Admiral 22 Jan. 1847.
Sir Graham Eden Hamond (a Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Norfolk and the Isle of Wight) was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815; and a K.C.B. 13 Sept. 1831. He married, 30 Dec. 1806, Elizabeth, daughter of John Kimber, Esq., of Fowey, co. Cornwall, by whom he has had issue two sons (the present Capt. A. S. Hamond, R.N., and the late Commander G. E. W. Hamond, R.N.) and three daughters, of whom the second is married to her first-cousin Lieut.-Col. Hon. Fras. Grosvenor Hood, of the Grenadier Guards. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
- ↑ Sir Andrew Snape Hamond was born in 1738, and entered the Navy in 1753. He served as Lieutenant of the Magnanime 74, in the action off Quiberon, 20 Nov. 1759; was in the same ship throughout a great part of the Seven Years’ War; attained Post-rank 7 Dec. 1770; and, for the distinguished nature of his conduct as Captain of the Roebuck 44, during the hostilities with America, was awarded the honour of Knighthood in 1778. From 1780 until 1783, towards the close of which year he was created a Baronet, he officiated as Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Nova Scotia, and Commodore and Resident Commissioner at Halifax. He afterwards, between 1785 and 1788, discharged the duties of Commodore and Commander-in-Chief on the river Medway; and in 1793-4 was successively appointed a Commissioner of the Navy Board and Deputy Comptroller and Comptroller of the Navy. He resigned the latter post with a retiring pension of 1500l. per annum in 1806. He died at Lynn, co. Norfolk, in the 90th year of his age, 12 Sept. 1828; at which period, had his previous tenure of office permitted his acceptance of Flag-rank, he would have been Admiral of the Fleet.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1804, p. 1309.