Edward Codrington

Sir Codrington on a Greek postage stamp marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Navarino (1927)

Edward Codrington in a painting by Thomas Lawrence (1830)

Sir Edward Codrington (born April 27, 1770 in Dodington , Gloucestershire , † April 28, 1851 in Eaton Square , Belgravia , London ) was a British admiral .

Live and act

Codrington came from a royal family of officers. He received his first lessons from private tutors, later he moved to Harrow School in London.

Codrington joined the Royal Navy in July 1783 at the age of thirteen . After a kind of "basic training" on the English coast, he spent a few years a. a. stationed in the Mediterranean . On May 28, 1793 he was promoted to lieutenant and shortly thereafter came to the staff of Admiral Richard Howe on the flagship of the Canal Fleet HMS Queen Charlotte . He took part under Howe in the naval battle on the 13th Prairial (June 1, 1794) and was distinguished by bravery.

With effect from October 7, 1794 Codrington was promoted to Commander and on April 6, 1795 he was placed as captain of the HMS Babett . With this ship he took u. a. participated in the naval battle of Groix (June 23, 1795). After another promotion, Codrington switched to the HMD Druid who helped to control the sea route in the English Channel and the coasts to Portugal.

In 1797 Codrington was sent on home leave for an indefinite period of time with half pay. He settled in London and in the following years tried in vain to get a job with the English merchant navy. In December 1802 he married Jane Hall in London and had three sons with her: William John (1804-1884), Henry (1808-1877) and Edward († 1821). All sons served in the Royal Navy, the two older ones made careers like their father, the youngest son drowned off the Greek island of Hydra in 1821 .

After the Peace of Amiens (May 25/27, 1802) Codrington was given command of the ship of the line HMS Orion with which he joined Admiral Horatio Nelson 's fleet in the spring of 1805 . Under Nelson he took part in the Battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805). In the following years he supported the Spanish fleet in a British contingent in the fight against the French and took u. a. participated in the Walcheren Expedition (July / December 1809) in the fifth coalition war.

Codrington was then sent to the Spanish coast to support British troops in repelling the Napoleonic invasion . On June 4, 1814, Codrington was promoted to Admiral and assigned to the staff of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane . As such he fought in the British-American War and fought a. a. near Washington, Baltimore and New Orleans.

Further promotions followed: 1813 rear admiral, 1815 vice admiral and in December 1826 Codrington took over the supreme command of the Mediterranean Fleet and was assigned as such to support the independence movement of Greece . Together with Admiral Henri de Rigny , he forced Ibrahim Pascha , the commander of the Egyptian- Turkish military power in Morea on September 25, 1827 to an armistice. When the Ottoman fleet broke this in Morea, Codrington took over the command of the united British-French fleet, which also joined the Russian squadron under Admiral Login Petrovich Heiden . The planned punitive expedition to reestablish the armistice ended in the Battle of Navarino (October 20, 1827), in which most of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet was destroyed. Codrington was thus - alongside Rigny and Heiden - a war hero and was celebrated accordingly. The only criticism came from Prime Minister Frederick Robinson , who had other political goals than Tory .

In July 1828 Codrington appeared in front of Alexandria and forced Mehemed Ali to evacuate Morea, but was recalled in August 1828 and only found full recognition after Wilhelm IV's accession to the throne .

In 1829 Codrington returned to England and devoted himself to politics for the Whigs . Between 1832 and 1839 he represented as a deputy (→ House of Commons ) Devenport ( Devon ). When he was appointed Portsmouth Harbor Commander, he resigned from his political mandate. In 1831 Codrington commanded the fleet cruising off Lisbon , and in 1837 he was appointed admiral.

Admiral Edward Codrington died on April 28, 1851 at his home in Eaton Square, Belgravia (London). He found his final resting place in the cemetery of St. Peter's Church (Eaton Square). When almost everything was destroyed by fire in 1987, Codrington's remains were reburied in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey .

Honors

• 1815 Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
• February 1822 Fellow of the Royal Society
• In St Paul's Cathedral (London) and the All Saints Church (Dodington) were attached to him in honor plaques.
• In his honor, streets were named after him in several cities in Greece.
• In the Greek port city of Pylos ( Peloponnese ) an obelisk was erected for the "Heroes of the Battle of Navarino".

literature

• Jane Bourchier (Ed.): Memoir of the life of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington . London 1873.
• David Brewer: The Greek war of Independence. The struggle for freedomn from Ottoman oppression and the birth of the modern Greek Nation . Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY 2001, ISBN 1-58567-172-X .
• G. Grimm: Codrington, Sir Edward . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 1. Munich 1974, p. 321 f.
• Thomas H. Heathcote: Nelson's Trafalgar captains and their battles. A biographical and historical dictionary . Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley 2005, ISBN 1-84415-182-4 .
• William R. O'Byrne: A naval biographical dictionary, Vol. 1: A-L . Murray, London 1849.
• Colin White: The Trafalgar captains. Their lives and memorials . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 2005, ISBN 1-59114-874-X .
• CM Woodhouse: The Battle of Navarino . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1965.