Hyde Parker (Royal Navy officer, born 1739)

For other people named Hyde Parker, see Hyde Parker (disambiguation).

Admiral Sir Hyde Parker
Portrait by George Romney, c. 1760
Born	1739 Devonshire, England
Died	16 March 1807(1807-03-16) (aged 67–68) London, England
Allegiance	Great Britain United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Service years	1751–1807
Rank	Admiral of the White
Commands	North Sea Fleet Leeward Islands Station Jamaica Station Baltic Fleet
Conflicts	Seven Years' War American War of Independence New York and New Jersey campaign Capture of Savannah Battle of Cape Spartel Fourth Anglo-Dutch War Battle of Dogger Bank (1781) French Revolutionary Wars Mediterranean campaign of 1793–1796 Siege of Toulon (1793) Invasion of Corsica (1794) Battle of Genoa (1795) Battle of the Hyères Islands Battle of Copenhagen (1801)

Admiral of the White Sir Hyde Parker (1739 – 16 March 1807) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars.

Life

Hyde Parker was born in 1739 in Devonshire, the second son of Sir Hyde Parker, 5th Baronet. He joined the Royal Navy in 1751 as a midshipman onboard his father's ship HMS Vanguard, transferring to HMS Cruizer alongside the elder Parker before the younger Parker transferred to HMS Medway. Parker was promoted to lieutenant on 25 January 1758 onboard HMS Brilliant during the Seven Years' War. On 16 December 1762 was promoted to command Manila, from which, on 18 July 1763, he was posted to Baleine.

From 1766 onwards for many years he served in the West Indies and in North American waters, particularly distinguishing himself during the New York and New Jersey campaign in breaking past the American defences at the North River in 1776 as captain of HMS Phoenix. His services on this occasion earned him a knighthood in 1779. In 1778 he participated in the capture of Savannah, and in the following year his ship was wrecked on the Cuban coast. His men, however, entrenched themselves, and were in the end brought off safely. He became commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands Station in 1779.

Parker served under his father at the Battle of Dogger Bank, and served under Admiral of the Blue Richard Howe at the Battle of Cape Spartel. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the White on 1 February 1793, the same day that Revolutionary France declared war on Britain. Parker served under Vice-Admiral of the Red Lord Hood at the siege of Toulon and invasion of Corsica. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 4 July 1794 and took part in the battles of Genoa and Hyères Islands under Vice-Admiral of the Red William Hotham. From 1796 to 1800 he was in command at the Jamaica Station and ably conducted British naval operations in the West Indies. These included the tracking down and execution of a number of crewmen involved in the mutiny on board HMS Hermione in 1797. On 14 February 1799 Parker was promoted to Admiral of the White.

In 1801 he was appointed to command the Baltic Fleet ordered to break up the Second League of Armed Neutrality, with Vice-Admiral of the Blue Sir Horatio Nelson as his second-in-command. Copenhagen, the first objective of the expedition, fell in the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801 to the fierce attack of Nelson's squadron – Parker, with the heavier ships, taking little part due to the shallowness of the channel. At the height of the battle Parker, who was loath to infringe the customary rules of naval warfare, raised the flag to disengage. Famously, Nelson ignored the order from his commander by raising his telescope to his blind eye and exclaiming "I really do not see the signal " (although this is generally accepted to be a myth). Nelson pressed on with the action and ultimately triumphed over the Danish fleet. Parker's hesitation to advance up the Baltic Sea after his victory was later severely criticised. Soon afterwards he was recalled and Nelson succeeded him. He died on 16 March 1807.

Character assessment

In Parker's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography his biographer Clive Wilkinson writes that until the Copenhagen affair he had "a good professional reputation" but after Copenhagen he was "considered irresolute and dilatory. In Wilson's opinion "As an officer, Parker was an able administrator rather than a great leader and this was to prove a weakness when it came to having both St Vincent as his chief and Nelson as a subordinate"; and that "He was evidently a popular man for as Nelson wrote after Copenhagen:"

We all respect and love Sir Hyde; but the dearer his friends, the more uneasy they have been at his idleness for that is the truth—no criminality. I believe Sir H. P. to be as good a subject as His Majesty has.

Family

Parker was twice married: first, to Anne, daughter of John Palmer Boteler, and by her had three sons; second, in 1800, he married Frances, a daughter of Admiral Sir Richard Onslow, and made their home at the manor house in Benhall on the Suffolk coast.

His first son – the third Hyde Parker (1786–1854) – became a rear admiral in turn on 23 November 1841 and vice admiral on 4 June 1852. From 1853 he served as First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, and died on 25 May 1854. His son Hyde, a captain in the navy, commanded Firebrand in the Black Sea, and was killed on 8 July 1854 when storming a Russian fort at the mouth of the Danube.

Two other notable family members who fought in the Napoleonic wars are Parker's second son, John Boteler Parker, who died a major general and C.B. in 1851, and the youngest, Harry, a lieutenant in the guards, who fell at the Battle of Talavera.

References

• Cundall, Frank (1915). Historic Jamaica. West India Committee.
• Lambert, Andrew (2004). "Parker, Hyde (1784?–1854)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21312. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
• NT staff (13 May 2013). "Melford Hall history". The National Trust. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
• "The Parkers: a naval dynasty". The National Trust. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
• Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Parker, Hyde" . Encyclopedia Americana.
• Wilkinson, Clive (January 2008) [2004]. "Parker, Sir Hyde (1739–1807)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21311. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)

Attribution:

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Parker, Sir Hyde s.v. Admiral Sir Hyde Parker". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 827.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Laughton, John Knox (1895). "Parker, Hyde (1739-1807)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 43. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 244–245.