Away, the memorial in a
Bedfordshire church bristles with outrage: "To the perpetual Disgrace of
Public Justice," it claims of the man it commemorates, an Admiral executed
on the quarterdeck of his ship 250 years ago on 14th March, for failing to engage the French in battle
with sufficient enthusiasm. He was, it adds, "a Martyr to Political
Persecution...when Bravery and Loyalty were Insufficient Securities for the
Life and Honour of a Naval Officer." Or, as Voltaire put it more coolly
and cynically in his contemporary novel Candide: "In this country, it is
wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others." Guardian reports that this year, people gathered
at the church in Southill, Beds, at
noon, the time of that admiral’s execution, to lay a wreath and say prayers,
with the bell tolling 52 times in commemoration of his age, descendants of the
unfortunate admiral who have petitioned the government for a posthumous pardon
were aware that their request was unlikely to be granted.
Media reports suggested
quoting a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence that the admiral could not
receive the sort of pardon that ministers granted last year to men shot at dawn
during the first world war - basically because there is no one alive who
remembers him. The MoD said there had been specific reasons for the first world
war victims to be pardoned: "There are people alive who knew them. There
was a feeling that a wrong had been done. It was a personal matter rather than
something lost in the mist of time." The naval admiral episode, however was to be accepted past
history and a pardon would set a precedent. But descendant called it a shameful end for an
admiral with an unblemished career. "His court martial was a sham, with
false testimonies, witness intimidation and intrigue - all to cover up the
failure of the government."
The man - Byng, a career
naval officer, certainly appears to have been stitched up. He was sent with an
inadequate fleet in May 1756 to prevent the capture of the British garrison at
St Philip's Castle on the island of Menorca after a French invasion. The
admiral made it clear that he believed he did not have enough ships or men, but
was denied reinforcements. When a French fleet hove into view, they were
half-heartedly engaged but then allowed to escape and Byng eventually set sail
back to Gibraltar without relieving the fort.
The island of Minorca had
been a British possession since 1708, when it was captured during the War of
the Spanish Succession. On the approach of the Seven Years' War, it was
threatened by a French naval attack from Toulon, and was invaded in 1756. Admiral
John Byng was serving in the Channel at
the time and was ordered to the Mediterranean to relieve the British garrison
of Fort St Philip, at Port Mahon. Despite his protests, he was not given enough
money or time to prepare the expedition properly. His fleet was delayed in
Portsmouth for five days while additional crew were found. His correspondence
shows that he left prepared for failure, that he did not believe that the
garrison could hold out against the French force, and that he was already
resolved to come back from Minorca if he found that the task presented any great
difficulty. In the battle of Minorca, neither
side lost a ship in the engagement, and casualties were roughly even, with 43
British sailors killed and 168 wounded, against French losses of 38 killed and
175 wounded.
Admiral John Byng (1704 –
1757) was a Royal Navy officer. After joining the navy at the age of thirteen,
he participated at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. Over the next thirty
years he built up a reputation as a solid naval officer and received promotion
to vice-admiral in 1747. He was a Member of Parliament from 1751 until his death.
At the battle of Minorca,
he called a council of his captains at which he suggested that Minorca was
effectively lost and that the best course would be to return to Gibraltar to
repair the fleet. The council concurred, and the fleet set sail for Gibraltar, However,
before his fleet could return to sea, another ship arrived from England with
further instructions, relieving Byng of his command and ordering him to return
home. On arrival in England he was placed in custody. He was to be court-martialled and found guilty
of failing to "do his utmost" to prevent Minorca falling to the
French. He was sentenced to death and, after his plea for clemency was denied,
was shot dead by a firing squad on 14 March 1757.
First Lord of the
Admiralty Richard Grenville-Temple was granted an audience with the King to
request clemency, but this was refused in an angry exchange. Prime Minister
William Pitt the Elder was aware that the Admiralty was at least partly to
blame for the loss at Minorca due to the poor manning and repair of the fleet.
Lord Newcastle, the politician responsible, had by now joined the Prime
Minister in an uneasy political coalition and this made it difficult for Pitt
to contest the court martial verdict as strongly as he would have liked. He
did, however, petition the King to commute the death sentence. The appeal was
refused; Pitt and King George II were political opponents, with Pitt having
pressed for George to relinquish his hereditary position of Elector of Hanover
as being a conflict of interest with the government's policies in Europe. The
King did not exercise his prerogative to grant clemency. Following the court
martial and pronouncement of sentence, Admiral Byng had been detained aboard
HMS Monarch in the Solent and, on 14 March 1757, he was taken to the
quarterdeck for execution in the presence of all hands and men from other ships
of the fleet in boats surrounding Monarch. The admiral knelt on a cushion and
signified his readiness by dropping his handkerchief, whereupon a squad of
Royal Marines shot John Byng dead.
~ and the
spark for a search on this shooting down of Admiral was an oneliner that was
read in BBC today on ‘Gambling Vs Insurance’ which said, the patrons of UK, bet, for example, on whether
Admiral John Byng would be shot for his incompetence in a naval battle with the
French. He was.
Interesting ! with more than
tinge of sadness !!
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
20th Mar 2017. Biblio : theguardian; bbc and Wikipedia.
