Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dacres, Sidney Colpoys
DACRES, Sir SIDNEY COLPOYS (1805–1884), admiral, son of Vice-admiral Sir Richard (d. 1837), and brother of General Sir Richard James Dacres, constable of the Tower [q. v.], entered the navy in 1817, and received his commission as lieutenant in 1827. In 1828, while lieutenant of the Blonde frigate, he was landed in command of a party of seamen to assist in the reduction of Kastro Morea (30 Oct.), a service for which he received the crosses of the Legion of Honour and of the Redeemer of Greece. In 1834 he was promoted to be commander, and from 1836–9 commanded the steamer Salamander, being employed during part of the time in the operations on the north coast of Spain. On 1 Aug. 1840 he was advanced to post rank, and, after several years on half-pay, commanded the St. Vincent from 1847–9, as flag-captain to Sir Charles Napier in the Channel. From 1849 to 1852 he commanded the Leander frigate, also in the Channel, and on 3 June 1852 he was appointed to the Sans Pareil, in which he went out to the Mediterranean and took part in the operations before Sebastopol, including the bombardment of 17 Oct. 1854 (Kinglake, Invasion of the Crimea, iii. 415, and plan). For this he received the C.B., and in July 1855 he was appointed captain-superintendent of Haslar Hospital and the Royal Clarence (Gosport) Victualling Yard, an office which he held till he attained his flag on 25 June 1858. In August 1859 he was appointed captain of the fleet in the Mediterranean, on board the Marlborough with Vice-admiral Fanshawe, and afterwards with Sir William Martin. In December 1861 he moved to the Edgar, as second in command in the Mediterranean; and in April 1863, still in the Edgar, was appointed commander-in-chief in the Channel. He held this command till his promotion to the rank of vice-admiral 17 Nov. 1865, having been made K.C.B. on 28 March 1865. In the following July he accepted a seat at the admiralty under Sir John Pakington. When Mr. Childers formed a new board in December 1868, Dacres became first sea lord, and continued in that position until November 1872. He became full admiral in 1870, and G.C.B. 20 May 1871; and on his retirement was appointed visitor and governor of Greenwich Hospital, and so continued till his death at Brighton on 8 March 1884.
He married in October 1840, Emma, daughter of Mr. D. Lambert, by whom he had several children; among others Seymour Henry Pelham Dacres, a captain in the navy, who died in Japan on 28 May 1887, aged 40.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Navy Lists; Times, 10 March 1884.]