Cornwallis , Sir , William , 1744-1819 , Knight , Admiral

Cornwallis entered the Navy in 1755 and served in the Newark in North America and the Dunkirk in the Channel, 1759 to 1760. He became a lieutenant in 1761 and a commander in 1762, the year he took the SWIFT to the West Indies where he remained until 1765, when he was promoted to captain. His next ship was the GUADELOUPE, Mediterranean, to which he was appointed in 1768, going in her to Newfoundland in 1769 and thence to the West Indies until 1773. From 1774 to 1776 he went on two commissions to West Africa and Jamaica in the Pallas. Between 1777 and 1778 he commanded the Isis in North America and in 1779 was appointed to the LION, remaining in her until 1781, in the West Indies. He was present at the battle of Grenada, 1779, and was at both the battles of St. Kitts, 1782, and the Saints, 1782, in the Canada. In 1788 he became Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, in the Crown and towards the end of his command reduced Pondicherry. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1793 and to vice-admiral in 1794, when he was appointed to the EXCELLENT in the Channel, from which he moved quickly to the CAESAR and then to the ROYAL SOVEREIGN. In 1796 he commanded an expedition to the West Indies but after a collision Cornwallis turned back: he was court-martialled but acquitted. In 1799 he was made an admiral and in 1801 succeeded Earl St. Vincent to the command of the Channel Fleet. With the exception of the period of peace he maintained the blockade of Brest in the Ville de Paris until he was superseded by St Vincent in 1806. He saw no further active service. Cornwallis was Member of Parliament for Eye in Suffolk from 1768 to 1774, 1782 to 1784 and 1790 to 1807 and for Portsmouth from 1784 to 1790. The papers were used by John Leyland ed., Dispatches and letters relating to the blockade of Brest Navy Records Society, 1898, 1901). There is a biography by G Cornwallis-West, The life and letters of Admiral Cornwallis (London, 1927).