Sidney Smith (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith (21 June 1764 – 26 May 1840) was a British naval officer and politician. Serving in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of admiral in the Royal Navy. Smith was known for his outspoken character and penchant for acting on his own initiative, which caused a great deal of friction with many of his superiors and colleagues.

Smith's military skill, personal intelligence and enterprise led to his involvement in a variety of tasks which involved warfare, diplomacy and espionage. He became a hero in Britain for leading the successful defence of Acre in 1799, thwarting Napoleon's plans of further conquest in Ottoman Syria. Napoleon, reminiscing later in his life, reportedly said of him: "That man made me miss my destiny".

Early life and career

Sidney Smith, as he always called himself, was born into a military and naval family with connections to the Pitt family. He was born at Westminster, the second son of Captain John Smith of the Guards and his wife Mary Wilkinson, daughter of wealthy merchant Pinckney Wilkinson. Sidney Smith attended Tonbridge School until 1772. He joined the Royal Navy in 1777 and fought in the American War of Independence. From June 1777 to January 1778 he served under Commander Jahleel Brenton on board the storeship . He moved to the post ship , and in her saw action in 1778 against the American frigate .

For his bravery under Rodney in the action near Cape St Vincent in January 1780, Sidney Smith was, on 25 September, appointed lieutenant of the 74-gun third-rate , Another drawing by Hennequin, depicting only Smith, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

thumb|left|upright|1796 portrait of Smith in the Temple Prison by [[Philippe-Auguste Hennequin]]

Smith was held in Paris for two years, despite a number of efforts to exchange him and frequent contacts with both French Royalists and British agents. Notably Captain Jacques Bergeret, captured in April 1796 with the frigate Virginie, was sent from England to Paris to negotiate his own exchange; when the Directoire refused, he returned to London. The French authorities threatened several times to try Smith for arson, but never followed through on the threats. Eventually in 1798 the Royalists, who pretended to be taking him to another prison, helped Smith and Wright to escape. The royalists brought the two Englishmen to Le Havre, where they boarded an open fishing boat and were picked up on 5 May by on patrol in the English Channel, arriving in London on 8 May 1798. Bergeret was then released, the British government considering the prisoner exchange as completed.

Service in the Mediterranean

thumb|upright|Commodore Smith at [[Siege of Acre (1799)|Acre. On his left breast one can see the star of the Order of the Sword.]]

Following Nelson's overwhelming victory at the Battle of the Nile, Smith was sent to the Mediterranean as captain of , were able to land. On 9 May after another fierce bombardment, the final French assault was made. This, too, was repelled and Napoleon began making plans for the withdrawal of his army to Egypt. Shortly after this, Napoleon abandoned his army in Egypt and sailed back to France evading the British ships patrolling the Mediterranean.

thumb|right|[[The Landing of British Troops at Aboukir by Philip James de Loutherbourg. The Landing of British troops at Aboukir under heavy fire. Smith is depicted standing on the foreground craft personally directing the landing.]]

Smith attempted to negotiate the surrender and repatriation of the remaining French forces under General Kléber and signed the Convention of El-Arish. However, because of the influence of Nelson's view that the French forces in Egypt should be annihilated rather than allowed to return to France, the treaty was abrogated by Lord Keith who had succeeded St Vincent as commander-in-chief.

In 1801, the British landed an army under Sir Ralph Abercromby at Abukir Bay. Smith and Tigre were involved in the training and transport of the landing forces and as liaison with the Ottomans, but his unpopularity resulted in the loss of his diplomatic credentials and his naval position as Commodore in the eastern Mediterranean. The invasion was successful and the French defeated, although Abercromby was wounded and died soon after the battle. Following this Smith then supported the army under Abercromby's successor John Hely-Hutchinson, which besieged and captured Cairo and finally took the last French stronghold of Alexandria. The French troops were eventually repatriated on terms similar to those previously obtained by Smith in the Convention of El-Arish.

Service in British waters

thumb|right|Statue commissioned as a national monument, pursuant to vote of the House of Commons in 1842, now at the [[National Maritime Museum]]

On his return to England in 1801, Smith received some honours and a pension of £1,000 for his services, but he was overshadowed again by Nelson who was being acclaimed as the victor of the Battle of Copenhagen. During the brief Peace of Amiens, Smith was elected Member of Parliament for Rochester

Mediterranean again

In July 1812, Smith again sailed for the Mediterranean aboard his new flagship, the 74-gun HMS Tremendous. He was appointed as second in command to Vice-admiral Sir Edward Pellew. His task was to blockade Toulon and he transferred his flag to the larger , a 110-gun first-rate. The French did not come out of port to confront the British. Early in 1814, the Allies entered Paris and Napoleon abdicated. With the coming of peace and the defeat of Napoleon, Smith began the journey back to England.

Peace and Waterloo

In March 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and gathering his veteran troops marched on Paris where he was reinstated as Emperor of the French. Smith travelling back to England had only reached Brussels by June. Smith, his wife and stepdaughter attended the Duchess of Richmond's ball on night 15/16 June, and three days later, hearing the gunfire of a great battle, he rode out of Brussels and went to meet the Duke of Wellington. Smith found him late in the day when he had just won the Battle of Waterloo. Smith started making arrangements for the collecting and treatment of the many wounded soldiers on both sides. He was then asked to take the surrender of the French garrisons at Arras and Amiens and to ensure that the Allied armies could enter Paris without a fight and that it would be safe for King Louis XVIII to return to his capital. For these and other services, he was finally awarded a British knighthood, the KCB, so he was not just "the Swedish Knight" any more.

Smith then took up the anti-slavery cause. The Barbary pirates had operated for centuries out of a number of North African ports. They had enslaved captured sailors and even made raids to kidnap people from European coasts, including England and Ireland. Smith attended the Congress of Vienna to campaign for funds and military action to end the practice of slave taking.

France and death

thumb|Grave of Sir Sidney Smith and his wife Caroline in the Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris

Smith had managed to run up significant debts through his diplomatic expenses, which the British government proved to be very slow in reimbursing. He also lived the high life and his efforts to mobilise opinion against the slave trade had cost a good deal of money. In Britain, at that time debtors were often imprisoned until their debts were paid, so Smith moved his family to France, settling in Paris. Eventually the government did reimburse his expenditures and increased his pension, allowing him to live in some style. Despite frequent attempts to obtain a seagoing position, he was never to hold a command again. He died on 26 May 1840 of a stroke. He is buried with his wife in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Namesakes

On 7 April 1801, the town Sidney in Delaware County, New York, was named in Sir Sidney Smith's honour. In June 1811 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1838 he was promoted to GCB in the Coronation Honours.

Sidney Smith Barracks, in Mandate Palestine, were named in his honour. Now it is the site of Bustan Ha-Galil in northern Israel, where on 14 July 1941 the French forces in Syria and Lebanon signed their surrender to the British.

References

Arms

External links

Admiral Sir Sydney Smith collection at the British Museum