Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Luard, William Garnham
LUARD, Sir WILLIAM GARNHAM (1820–1910), admiral, born on 7 April 1820 at Witham, Essex, was eldest son in a family of five sons and six daughters of William Wright Luard (1786–1857) of Witham, by his wife Charlotte (d. 1875), daughter of Thomas Garnham. The family was of Huguenot origin and had migrated to England on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the chief branch settling at Blyborough, Lincolnshire, in 1747. To the elder line belonged Henry Richards Luard [q. v.], John Luard [q. v.], John Dalbiac Luard [q. v.], and Charles Edward Luard (1839-1908) of Ightham, Kent, who served in the royal engineers, becoming colonel in 1886 and major-general in 1887.
William was educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and in 1835 was rated midshipman and appointed to the Actæon frigate. By his service as mate during the first China war he earned his commission as lieutenant, dated 4 May 1841. He was present in the squadron under Sir Gordon Bremer at the storming of Fort Taecocktow on 7 Jan. 1841, and at the capture of the Bogue Forts on 25 Feb., when the ships silenced the batteries of Anunghoy and on North Wantong, which the Chinese believed to be impregnable. As a lieutenant he served in the Isis, of 44 guns, on the Cape station, in the Grecian, sloop, on the south-east coast of America, and in April 1848 was appointed first lieutenant of the Hastings, of 72 guns, flagship of Sir Francis Collier [q. v.] in the East Indies. On 29 Sept. 1850 he was promoted to commander, and was appointed on the same day to command the Serpent, of 12 guns, in which he continued during the second Burmese war, taking part in the capture of Rangoon in April 1852, of Pegu in the following June, and other operations. He was mentioned in despatches and received the medal with the clasp for Pegu. He subsequently commanded the Star, sloop, on the south-east coast of America, and from her was in August 1860 moved into the flagship as executive officer. On 11 March 1857 he was promoted to captain. In July 1860 he was appointed flag captain to the commander-in-chief at the Nore, and in November to the screw line-of-battleship Conqueror for the China station. In her he took part in the operations in Japan, superintending the landing of storming parties at the destruction of the Nagato batteries in the Straits of Shimonoseki in Sept. 1864, for which service he received the C.B. and 4th class of the legion of honour. In Jan. 1869 he became flag captain to the admiral superintendent of naval reserves, and was captain-superintendent of Sheernees dockyard from May 1870 until he was promoted to flag rank on 1 Jan. 1875.
Luard had no employment afloat as a flag-officer, but was superintendent of Malta dockyard from March 1878 until promoted to vice-admiral on 15 June 1879. He afterwards served as chairman of several departmental committees, including that which inquired into the bursting of the Thunderer's gun in Jan. 1879, and in Nov. 1882 succeeded Sir Geoffrey Hornby [q. v. Suppl. I] as president of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He reached the rank of admiral on 31 March 1885, and a week later was placed on the retired list under the age clause; but he held his appointment at Greenwich for six months after retirement. He was a deputy-lieutenant and J.P. for Essex, and in 1897 received the K.C.B.
Luard died at Witham on 19 May 1910 as the result of a carriage accident, and was buried at All Saints' Church there.
He married in 1858 Charlotte, third daughter of the Rev. Henry de Cane of Witham, Essex, by whom he had time sons and eight daughters. Commander Herbert du Cane Luard, R.N., is the second surviving son. A portrait painted by Sidney Luard in 1905 is at 'Ivy Chimneys,' Witham.
[The Times, 20 and 25 May 1910; Burke's Landed Gentry.]