Augustus Keppel (1725 - 1786). Admiral Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1755 to 1782. He saw action in command of various ships, including the fourth-rate Maidstone, during the War of the Austrian Succession. He went on to serve as Commodore on the North American Station and then Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station during the Seven Years' War. After that he served as Senior Naval Lord and then Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet. During the American Revolutionary War Keppel came into a notorious dispute with Sir Hugh Palliser over Palliser's conduct as his second-in-command at the inconclusive Battle of Ushant in July 1778; the dispute led to Keppel being court-martialled, although he was subsequently acquitted. During the final years of the American Revolutionary War Keppel served as First Lord of the Admiralty. A member of a leading Whig aristocratic family, Augustus Keppel was the second son of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle and, Anne van Keppel, a daughter of the 1st Duke of Richmond. Educated briefly at Westminster School, Keppel went to sea at the age of ten, and had already five years of service to his credit when he was appointed to Centurion and sent with Lord Anson round the world in 1740. He had a very narrow escape from being killed at the capture of Paita and was promoted to acting lieutenant in March 1742. Also on this voyage, he made friends with John Campbell, and lost many of his teeth to the scurvy prevalent on the voyage. After their return from the circumnavigation, in November 1744, he was promoted to be commander and post-captain of the 14-gun sloop Wolf. He transferred to the sixth-rate Greyhound in December 1744, to the fifth-rate Saphire in February 1745 and the fourth-rate Maidstone in November 1745. In June 1747 he ran his ship, the Maidstone, ashore near Belleisle while chasing a French vessel, but was honourably acquitted by a court martial, and reappointed to another command, the fourth-rate Anson. He was actively employed throughout the rest of the War of the Austrian Succession, until peace was signed in 1748. Early in 1749, he was introduced by Lord Edgecombe to Sir Joshua Reynolds. When, on 11 May 1749, Keppel sailed from Plymouth to the Mediterranean, as Commodore commanding the Mediterranean Fleet, Reynolds travelled with him as far as Menorca and there painted the first of his 6 portraits of Keppel, along with others of officers of the British garrison there. After trying the effect of bullying without success, the Dey made a treaty, and Keppel returned to England in 1751. Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years' War During the Seven Years' War he saw constant service. He served as Commodore on the North American Station with his broad pennant in the fourth-rate Norwich from 1751 to 1755. He was on the coast of France in 1756 and was detached on an expedition to conquer Goree, a French island off the west coast of Africa in 1758. His ship, Torbay, was the first to get into action in the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759. In 1757 he had formed part of the court martial which had condemned Admiral John Byng, but was active among those who endeavoured to secure a pardon for him; but neither he nor those who had acted with him could produce any serious reason why the sentence should not be carried out. In March 1761, Keppel transferred to the third-rate HMS Valiant and was put in command of a squadron to reduce Belle Isle, which was successfully completed in June 1761. Main article: Battle of Havana When Spain joined France in 1762 he was sent as second in command with Sir George Pocock in the British expedition against Cuba which took Havana. His health suffered from the fever which carried off an immense proportion of the soldiers and sailors. The E25,000 of prize money which he received freed him from the unpleasant position of younger son of a family ruined by the extravagance of his father. Promoted to rear admiral on 21 October 1762, Keppel became Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station late in the year. He was a member of the Board of Admiralty in the First Rockingham ministry from July 1765 and was Senior Naval Lord in the Chatham ministry from September 1766 until leaving the Admiralty Board in December 1766. In 1768 he acquired Elveden Hall in Suffolk. He was promoted to vice admiral on 24 October 1770.