The Rear-Admiral who came to town.
Contribution by David G.P. Morse Vice Chair and Archivist Leamington History Group
Being involved with the Group’s website means that you get asked interesting questions and in some cases very interesting ones.
One question that caused me to rush to the National Newspaper Archives was regarding one Rear-Admiral Sir George Cockburn (2nd April 1772 – 19 August 1853) who died in Royal Leamington Spa.
I was not thinking that he was a rarity being a naval man and living in Royal Leamington Spa or indeed dying here. We had more than our fair share of Military personnel reside here but this man was different because our questioner, Kit Sutton, suggested that this Naval man “had burnt down the White House!”. Yes, that White House!
So I looked into this Naval Officer on Wikipedia. As with many senior Officers of the age they were involved in numerous operations during their long service career which I won’t write about here but are well worth reading in detail online.
However a brief history is worth it. Cockburn was born the second son of Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet and his second wife Augusta Anne Ayscough. He was educated at the Royal Navigational School and joined the Royal Navy in March 1781 as a Captain’s servant in the sixth-rate HMS Resource. He was 9 years of age. He became midshipman in the fifth-rate HMS Hebe in the Channel Squadron in 1791. Then became Acting Lieutenant in the fifth-rate HMS Pearl in 1792 and still only 20 years old. Two years later, after serving some time on HMS Victory, he served as Acting Captain of the fifth-rate HMS Inconstant. He took command of the frigate HMS Minerve in August 1796, having been mentioned in despatches in May the same year. He took part at the battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars. So, at the age of 25 he was already getting some serious action under his belt. As this is a shortened version of his career I jump to 1812 when he was promoted to Rear Admiral aged 40. In November that year he was sent to the North America Station where the Admiralty could “use an aggressive subordinate” in anti-shipping work against the American forces.
This led him to capture the Capital, Washington. He decreed that the whole city should be “burnt down to the ground”. In fact only the civic buildings such as Capitol Hill and the White House were flattened. Following the battle, Cockburn oversaw the destruction of the National Intelligencer newspaper’s offices and printing house by his soldiers. He famously stated: “Be sure that all the C’s are destroyed, so that the rascals cannot any longer abuse my name.” In August 1815, Cockburn was given the job of conveying Napoleon I in the third-rate HMS Northumberland to Saint Helena. Cockburn remained there for some months as governor of the island and Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope Station. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 20 February 1818, and promoted to vice-admiral on 12 August 1819. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 21 December 1820. In 1818 he had entered politics, and was elected Tory Member of Parliament for Portsmouth at the 1818 general election. Between then and 1851 he held various Naval posts as well as resigning as an MP then standing again in Ripon and then finally leaving politics, when promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 1 July 1851.
He had travelled to Royal Leamington Spa on or around May 26th 1849 staying at The Clarendon Hotel on Upper Parade along with his wife, Mary Cockburn, his cousin, who he had married in 1809, and daughter, Augusta Harriot Mary Cockburn, who later married Captain John Cochrane Hoseason. (It’s not known if a later Hoseason start a holiday business)
Nor is it known why this seasoned Naval man visited Royal Leamington Spa so close to the time of his death but one newspaper article speaks of him having a “long illness”. Could it be that he came hoping that the waters might aid his health? Nevertheless he died in The Clarendon Hotel on 19th August 1853, aged 81. His body was transported to the railway station and finally interred at Kensal Green Cemetery.
So died the Sailor known as “The Wellington of the Sea”.
DGPMORSE January 2025