Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/413

 KEPPEL, HENRY (1809–1904), admiral of the fleet, born in Kennsington on 14 June 1809, was sixth surviving son of William Charlos, fourth earl of Albemarle, by his wife Elizabeth Southwell, daughter of Edward, 20th Lord de Clifford. This grand-uncle was Augustus, Viscount Keppel [q. v.], and his elder brothers, Augustus Frederick and George Thomas, became successively fifth and sixth earls of Albemarle. Henry entered the navy on 7 Feb. 1822. After leaving the Royal Naval College at Greenwich he was appointed to the Tweed, of twenty-eight guns, and went out to the Cape. He passed his examination in 1828, and was promoted to lieutenant on 29 Jan. 1829. Early in 1830 he was appointed to the Galatea, Capt. Charles Napier [q. v.], which, after a spell of home service, went to the West Indies. At Barbadoes Keppel jeopardised his career by breaking an arrest in order to attend a dignity ball. He was next appointed to the Magicienne, Capt. James H. Plumridge [q. v.], going out to the East Indies, where he saw active service during the war between the East India Company and the Rajah of Nanning. His promotion to commander, dated 20 Jan. 1833, recalled him, and in 1834 he was appointed to command the Childers, brig, in which he served first on the south coast of Spain, co-operating with the forces of the Queen Regent against the Carlists, and afterwards on the west coast of Africa. On 6 Dec. 1837 he was promoted to be captain. In August 1841 he commissioned the Dido, corvette, for the China station, where he served wdth distinction during the latter part of the war under Sir William Parker. When peace was made in August 1842 Keppel was sent to Singapore as senior officer on that part of the station. There he made friends with Sir James Brooke [q. v.], with whom he returned to Sarawak. For eighteen months he co-operated with Brooke for the suppression of Borneo piracy, and, after many boat actions, the Dido, together with the East India Co.'s steamship Phlegethon, destroyed the chief stronghold of the pirates, together with some 300 prahus. After two years on half-pay Keppel was appointed in 1847 to the Mseander, frigate, and returned to the same station, where his intercourse with Brooke was resumed. Towards the end of the commission he visited Australia, and in 1851 returned to England by the Straits of Magellan (The Times, 22, 26, and 26 Jan. 1904).

In 1853 Keppel was appointed to the St. Jean d'Acre, then oonsidered the finest line-of-battleship in the navy, and lenred with distinction in her during the Baltic campaign of 1854, following which the ship was tent to the Black Sea. In July 1855 Keppel was moved into the Rodney, and took command of the naval brigade ashore before Sevastopol, continuing with it till the fall of the fortress. In addition to the Baltic and Crimean medals, he received the cross of the Legion of Honour, the third class of the Medjidie, and, on 4 Feb. 1850, was made a companion of the Bath.

When in the autumn of 1856 Keppel commissioned the Raleigh, frigate, as commodore and second in command on the China station, his reputation for courage and conduct combined with his family interest to give the ship a certain aristocratic character somewhat uncommon in the service; among the lieutenants were James G. Goodenough [q. v.]. Lord Gillford [see, fourth earl of Clanwilliam, Suppl. II], and Prince Victor of Hohenlohe [q. v.], while Lord Charles Scott [q. v. Suppl. II], Henry F. Stephenson, Arthur Knyvet Wilson, and Hon. Victor Montagu were midshipmen on board. During the Raleigh's passage war broke out in China, and every effort was made to hurry the ship to Hong Kong, shortly before reaching which she struck upon an uncharted pinnacle rock. The ship was totally lost, but there was no loss of life, and Keppel was acquitted by the subsequent court-martial. He next hoisted his broad pennant in the chartered river steamer Hong Kong, and took part in the operations in the Canton River. The attack delivered on the grand fleet of war junks in the upper reaches of Fatshan Creek on 1 June 1857 was entrusted to Keppel, under whose personal command practically the whole of the junks, to the number of about seventy, were burnt. The Chinese had obstructed the stream, measured the distances, and made other careful preparations for the defence of their position, and they fought stoutly. Keppel's galley was sunk, and five of her crew were lulled or wounded. He was warmly complimented by the commander in chief [see ], on whose recommendation he was awarded the K.C.B. On 22 August following he was promoted to his flag, and returned home.

In Sept. 1858 Sir Henry was appointed groom-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, a poet which he resigned in May 1860 to hoist his flagon board the frigate Forte as commander-in-chief on the Cape station. There was 