Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Eden, Henry
EDEN, HENRY (1797–1888), admiral, fourth son of Thomas Eden, deputy auditor of Greenwich Hospital, and cousin of George Eden, first earl of Auckland [q. v.], entered the navy in 1811 on board the Acasta, in which he served on the North American station till August 1815. He was shortly afterwards appointed to the Alceste frigate, commanded by Captain Murray Maxwell [q. v.], which sailed from Spithead in February 1816, carrying out Lord Amherst as ambassador to China [see Amherst, William Pitt, Earl Amherst]. The Alceste was wrecked in Gaspar Straits on 18 Feb. 1817, and Eden, with the other officers and the ship's company, together with the embassy, returned to England in a chartered merchant ship. In October he was made lieutenant, and after serving for two years in the Liffey on the coast of Portugal was in June 1820 appointed flag-lieutenant to his brother-in-law, Sir Graham Moore [q. v.], then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. In October 1821 he was promoted to the command of the Chanticleer, from which, in July 1822, he was moved to the Martin, and was employed for the next two years on the coast of Greece during the Greek revolution. In April 1827 he was advanced to post rank, and from 1832 to 1835 commanded the Conway frigate on the home station, and afterwards on the coast of South America. From 1839 to 1842 he served as flag-captain to Sir Graham Moore, commander-in-chief at Plymouth, and in May 1844 was appointed to the Collingwood, fitting for the Pacific as flagship of Sir George Francis Seymour [q. v.] His health, however, obliged him to resign the command before the ship sailed, and he had no further service afloat. From 1846 to 1848 he was private secretary to his cousin, Lord Auckland, then first lord of the admiralty; from 1848 to 1853 was superintendent of Woolwich dockyard, and was a lord of the admiralty from 1855 to 1858. He became rear-admiral 7 Aug. 1854, vice-admiral 11 Feb. 1861, and admiral 16 Sept. 1864; but after his retirement from the board, where the name of Eden had long been a potent spell, had no active connection with the navy. In his retirement he lived for the most part at Gillingham Hall in Norfolk, where he died on 30 Jan. 1888. He married in 1849 the daughter of Lieutenant-general Lord George Beresford, but left no issue.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Forster's Peerage; Navy Lists; Times, 2 Feb. 1888.]