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History
Hawke entered the Navy in 1720 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1729. He served in the Mediterranean, West Indies and off the West African coast between periods on half pay and became a captain in 1734. At the outbreak of war in 1739 he blockaded Barbados for four years until his appointment to the Berwick, in which he took a noteworthy part in the battle of Toulon and remained in the Mediterranean for the next eighteen months. After a brief period at home he was appointed, in 1747, vice-admiral and second-in-command of the Channel Fleet under Sir Peter Warren (1703-1752), and he succeeded to the command when Warren fell ill. His decisive victory off Finisterre in 1747 won him a knighthood and, in December of that year, he was elected a Member of Parliament for Portsmouth, a seat he held for thirty years. When peace came he commanded the Channel Fleet until 1752. In 1755 he again hoisted his flag, in the ST GEORGE, and was appointed to the Western Squadron. He was sent to the Mediterranean in June 1756 but was too late to prevent Minorca falling to the French. Having been promoted to admiral in 1757 and appointed to command the Channel Fleet, he took part in the Rochefort expedition. He held this command again in 1759 in the ROYAL GEORGE, enforced the blockade of Brest and won a decisive victory at Quiberon Bay. From 1766 to 1771 Hawke was First Lord of the Admiralty and was raised to the peerage in 1776. See Montagu Burrows, The Life of Edward, Lord Hawke (London, 1883) and Ruddock F. Mackay, Admiral Hawke (Oxford, 1965).