Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mundy, George Rodney
MUNDY, Sir GEORGE RODNEY (1805–1884), admiral of the fleet, son of General Godfrey Basil Mundy (author of the ‘Life of Lord Rodney’) by his wife Sarah Brydges, youngest daughter of George Brydges Rodney, first lord Rodney [q. v.], was born on 19 April 1805. In February 1818 he entered the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, and in December 1819, having gained the medal of his class, giving him two years sea-time, he was appointed to the Phaeton frigate, on the North American station. He afterwards served on the Mediterranean and South American stations; and on 4 Feb. 1826 was confirmed in the rank of lieutenant and appointed to the Éclair, which came home in September 1827. For the next twelve months he was on the coast of Portugal, in the Challenger, with Captain Adolphus FitzClarence [q. v.], and in the Pyramus with Captain G. R. Sartorius [q. v.] On 25 Aug. 1828 he was promoted to be commander. In 1832 he was on board the Donegal as confidential agent under Sir Pulteney Malcolm [q. v.] on the coast of Holland, and in 1833 was employed by the first lord of the admiralty on a special mission to Holland and Belgium. In August 1833 he was appointed to the Favourite for service in the Mediterranean. He paid her off in the early months of 1837, having been already advanced to post rank on 10 Jan. 1837.
In October 1842 he was appointed to the Iris frigate, employed during the early part of 1843 on the west coast of Africa. As the ship was very sickly she was sent home and paid off. She was then thoroughly refitted at Portsmouth, and again commissioned by Mundy, for service in India and China. She arrived at Singapore in July 1844, and for the next two years was employed in the ordinary routine of the station in Chinese or Indian waters. She was then taken by the commander-in-chief, Sir Thomas John Cochrane, to Borneo, where, in co-operation with ‘Rajah’ Brooke, Mundy was engaged for the next six months in a brilliant series of operations against the Borneo pirate tribes [see Brooke, Sir James], an interesting account of which, from his own and Brooke's journals, he afterwards published under the title of ‘Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes down to the Occupation of Labuan. . . . Together with a Narrative of the Operations of H.M.S. Iris,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1848. His share in this service ended with his formally taking possession of Labuan on 24 Dec. 1846, after which he returned to Singapore, and early in April 1847 sailed for England, where he arrived on 26 July.
In July 1854 Mundy was appointed to the Nile, a screw line-of-battle ship of 91 guns, then in the Baltic. She was again in the Baltic in 1855; but, on the conclusion of peace with Russia, was sent to the West Indies. On 30 July 1857 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and was nominated a C.B. on 23 June 1859. In 1859 and 1860, with his flag in the Hannibal, as second in command in the Mediterranean, he was employed in the delicate task of protecting British interests at Palermo and at Naples, during the revolutionary civil war, and, so far as his position enabled him, in mitigating the horrors of the struggle. Afterwards, in 1861, he commanded the detached squadron on the coast of Syria, at the time of the departure of the French army of occupation. Towards the close of 1861 his health broke down, and he was compelled to return to England. His arduous services and tact during a time of very great difficulty were rewarded by a K.C.B., 10 Nov. 1862. He afterwards published ‘H.M.S. Hannibal at Palermo and Naples during the Italian Revolution, with Notices of Garibaldi, Francis II, and Victor Emmanuel,’ post 8vo, 1863, an intelligent history of the revolution.
On 15 Dec. 1863 he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and from 1867 to 1869 was commander-in-chief in the West Indies. On 26 May 1869 he attained the rank of admiral, and was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth 1872-5. On 2 June 1877 he was nominated a G.C.B., and on 27 Dec. 1877 was promoted to be admiral of the fleet on the retired list. He died on 23 Dec. 1884. He was not married.
Mundy was known in the navy for his strict observance of old-fashioned etiquette and for a certain pomposity of demeanour, springing partly from the high value he placed on his rank and partly from his pride of birth as the grandson of Lord Rodney. Several amusing suggestions of this will be found in his ‘Hannibal at Palermo.’ Some of the current stories about him when he was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth were no doubt true, but the greater number were fabrications; and, whatever his eccentricities, he was at all times courteous and considerate to those under his command.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Morning Post, 26 Dec. 1884; Navy Lists; his own works named in the text.]