Regency Personalities Series-Admiral Sir John Gore
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency (I include those who were born before 1811 and who died after 1795), today I continue with one of the many period notables.
Vice-Admiral of the Red Sir John Gore
9 February 1772 – 21 August 1836
John Gore
Vice-Admiral of the Red Sir John Gore joined the Royal Navy in August 1781, as a Captain’s Servant, and would have served as a Midshipman, before gaining promotion to Lieutenant on 26 November 1789 and Commander on 24 May 1794. The Royal Navy had just captured the French corvette Fleche at the capture of Bastia, in which Gore had played a significant role and had been injured. The Navy took the corvette into service as HMS Fleche and commissioned her under Gore. He fitted her out and sailed her to Malta where he negotiated with the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc for seamen, supplies, and the like. On 13 September Gore was a witness at the trial of Lieutenant William Walker, commander of the hired armed cutter Rose, on charges that Walker had accepted money from merchants at Bastia to convoy their vessels to Leghorn, where the court martial took place. Walker was acquitted.
Gore received promotion to post captain on 14 November 1794. When in command of HMS Triton he took part in the successful Action of 16 October 1799 in which two Spanish frigates were captured and more than 2 million silver dollars taken. While commanding the 32-gun frigate HMS Medusa, he took part in the Action of 5 October 1804. Promoted to rear-admiral on 4 December 1813, he became Commander-in-Chief, The Nore from 1818 to 1821. Promoted to vice-admiral on 27 May 1825, he served as Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station from 1831 to 1834.
On 15 August 1808, at St George’s, Hanover Square, he married Georgiana Montagu, daughter of Admiral Sir George Montagu and Charlotte Wroughton. The couple had four children:
Lieutenant John Gore (d. 1835)
Hon. Georgiana Stuart Gore (d. 18 July 1877)
Anne Gore (d. 23 July 1877) – the mother of Assheton Gore Curzon-Howe.
Maria Gore (d. 8 March 1902)
In fiction, he appears in Hornblower and the Hotspur as the Medusa’s captain.
