Sir Charles Morice Pole (1757-1830)
Though regarded as a safe pair of hands, when promoted to admiral the well-connected Pole was unable to obtain any of the major naval commands. After leaving active service at the age of 44 he forged a successful career in parliament, proving himself a great advocate for the navy.
Born on 18 January 1757, he was the second son of Reginald Pole of Stoke Damerel in Devon, and of his wife, Anne Buller. His elder brother, Reginald Pole-Carew, was a member of parliament for all but a few years during the period 1782-1816.
After an earlier education at Plympton Grammar School, Pole entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth in January 1770, and two years later he joined the frigate Thames 32, Captain William Locker, serving in home waters.
In late 1773, aged 16, he joined the Salisbury 50, Captain George Waters, departing in December for the East Indies with the broad pennant of Commodore Sir Edward Hughes, who had been appointed the peace-time commander-in-chief. On 26 June 1777 Hughes promoted him to lieutenant of the Seahorse 24, Captain John Alexander Panton. He remained with this ship in the East Indies, and in 1778 (by which time France had joined the American Revolutionary War) he moved to the Rippon 60, flying the broad pennant of Commodore Sir Edward Vernon. He subsequently took part in the action with the French off Pondicherry on 10 August before commanding a battalion of seamen ashore at the reduction of that base. On 25 October, aged 21, Pole was promoted commander of the sloop Cormorant 14 in succession to Commander William Owen who had lost his life in an alcohol-fuelled accident. Pole and the Cormorant left for England on 4 November carrying Captain George Young with Vernon’s despatches; they arrived in the second week of March 1779.
A young Captain Pole
Just a week after coming home, Pole was posted captain (on 22 March 1779) of the Britannia 100, the flagship of Vice-Admiral George Darby, and he was present during the August retreat of the British fleet up the Channel. He remained with the Britannia in the Grand Fleet until 7 June, when he moved to the (probably much more desirable) command of the frigate Hussar 28.
On 23 July 1780 the Hussar sailed with a convoy for Cork, falling in with three Dunkirk-based privateers, taking two of them, each mounting 12 guns. Three weeks later she departed for North America with a convoy under the orders of Captain John MacBride of the Bienfaisant 64. Not long after arriving on that station she took the Spanish ship Nuestra Sĕnora del Buen Consejo 64 armed en-flute, with a subsequent capture being the New London privateer Hibernian 10 on 25 October. Pole’s command of the frigate ended when due to the error of the pilot, the Hussar was wrecked in the Hell Gate (between Long Island and Manhattan) on 23 November with the loss of some one hundred and fifty souls. Pole was fully acquitted of any blame for her loss at the subsequent court martial and he returned to England in the packet Swift with Vice-Admiral Marriott Arbuthnot’s despatches, arriving at the Admiralty on 26 January 1781.
He was soon appointed to commission the new frigate Success 32 in late March, taking a convoy to Jersey in August and capturing the privateer Eclair in the Channel in October. In March 1782 he was ordered to escort the store ship Vernon 22 out to Gibraltar. During the passage he fell in with the large Spanish frigate Santa Catalina 34 (carrying 26 12-pounder cannons) on 16 March. With the help of the well-armed merchant ship Vernon, he brought the Spaniard to action. After forcing her surrender inside two hours he then suffered the most incredible ill-luck – an unknown squadron appeared in view, which he mistook to be Spanish. It was only after burning the Santa Catalina that he found the strangers were two British frigates and a convoy under the command of Captain Robert Man.
Continuing with the Success, in June 1782 Pole took a convoy of victuallers out to Jamaica from Cork, fortunately avoiding the enemy combined fleet that was at sea. Arriving in the first week of September at Kingston, the Success returned to Portsmouth with specie worth 100,000 guineas. After further service in home waters, she was paid off in November 1783, by which time the country was at peace.
Pole remained unemployed until 30 August 1786, when he was appointed to the Medway-based guardship Scipio 64, and a month later he transferred to the Plymouth-based guard-ship Crown 64. In June 1787 he sailed the Crown around to Portsmouth to join Commodore John Leveson-Gower’s squadron of observation, repeating this cruise in the summer of 1788, prior to being paid off at Chatham in early October. In 1789 he was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber to Prince William, the Duke of Clarence, whom he accompanied on a visit to Chatham in March 1790. He would retain this position until his death.
During the Spanish Armament of 1790 Pole was appointed to commission the new frigate Melampus 36, with one of his first duties being the referral of a bitter dispute between the tyrannical Lieutenant Richard Hancorn and Midshipman William Butterfield to the port admiral for further action. On 31 August the boat in which Pole was sailing out to join the Melampus at Spithead overset under a heavy press of sail, and although all 17 men aboard were rescued, Pole lost about £100 worth of livestock. (Apocryphally, his men refused to be picked up from their capsized boat until he had been found). His frigate sailed the next day with the Romulus 44 (Captain Thomas Lennox Frederick), and a sloop to reconnoitre Brest, returning to Portsmouth on 1 October. A month later they also reconnoitred the Spanish Atlantic ports, but with the dispute with Spain being resolved, the Melampus was paid off.
In March 1791 Pole recommissioned the ship of the line Illustrious 74 during the Russian Armament, with this vessel sailing out of Portsmouth Harbour in the first week of May, only to be paid off six months later at the end of that particular dispute. The most excitement during this brief interlude was a visit to the ship in June from his friend, the Duke of Clarence, who was himself a naval officer.
On 8 June 1792, in a service conducted by the Archbishop of York, Pole married Henrietta Sarah Maria, the daughter of John Goddard, a Rotterdam trader living at Woodford Hall in Essex, and the cousin of both the archbishop and of Captain (future Admiral) John Markham. The couple would have three daughters, the youngest of whom predeceased Pole.
At the beginning of the French Revolutionary War, he recommissioned the Colossus 74 at Plymouth in February 1793, going out to the Mediterranean in May with Vice-Admiral William Hotham’s squadron. The Colossus was involved in the occupation of Toulon from 27 August, and sailed to collect troops from Cagliari, Sardinia to reinforce the garrison. At the end of September the Colossus returned to England with Vice-Admiral Lord Hood’s dispatches, but she was soon sent back to the Mediterranean. In early 1794 the ship collected a convoy at Gibraltar and escorted it to Malta, and on the way home picked up another convoy from Cadiz to Portsmouth. The Colossus arrived there on 16 March with several other men of war and two French prizes.
After a refit in Portsmouth Harbour, in May 1794 she joined a detachment of Admiral Lord Howe’s Channel Fleet, but she missed the Battle of the Glorious First of June. However, the ship formed part of the reinforcement that left Plymouth under Rear-Admiral George Montagu on 3 June to try (unsuccessfully) to intercept the returning French fleet. By the beginning of July, she was back at Plymouth before going east to Spithead to join the main body of the fleet. In March 1795 she went out on a cruise with Rear-Admiral John Colpoys’ squadron, from which she returned to Portsmouth in April.
Pole was promoted a rear-admiral on 1 June 1795, and from the beginning of September he briefly flew his flag at Portsmouth aboard the Trident 64, Captain Theophilus Jones. Transferring shortly afterwards back to his previous command, the Colossus, and with Henry Jenkins serving as his flag-captain, he remained at Spithead for some weeks before setting sail on 16 November 1795 for the Leeward Islands as second-in-command in Rear-Admiral Hugh Christian’s expeditionary force. No sooner had the ships put to sea than they were overcome by fierce winter storms, which resulted in the loss of many lives and the expedition’s return to port a week later. By the end of the year the Colossus and the West Indies fleet tried to sail once more, only to return with many of her consorts to Portsmouth on 29 January 1796. By now, Pole’s flagship was in such a bad condition that she had to be taken into dock for a full repair. After transferring to the Carnatic 74 at Plymouth (with Captain Jenkins and many of the Colossus’ crew), on 12 April Pole finally set sail from Portsmouth for the West Indies with several transports. On arriving in the Leeward Islands he participated in that summer’s campaign, and then in October sailed for home with Admiral Christian aboard the Beaulieu 40, Captain Lancelot Skynner, arriving at Weymouth on 17 November.
On 23 December 1796 Pole assumed the position of captain of the Channel Fleet to Admiral Lord Bridport aboard the Royal George 100, Captain William Domett. At this time a French fleet was threatening Ireland, but the Channel Fleet failed to intercept the enemy. He continued in this role, being sent to the Admiralty with first hand news of the outbreak of the fleet’s mutiny at Spithead on 16 April, and he participated in the fleet’s various cruises throughout the rest of the year. On 8 December he was presented to the King, and after spending the winter ashore, he left town with Bridport at the end of February 1798 to join the fleet once more. The remainder of the year was largely uneventful for the Channel Fleet as it kept watch on its counterpart in Brest, apart from the breakout of a French squadron in September which was brought to account by Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren’s force off Ireland.
Pole remained ashore once more over the winter of 1798-99, and it was not until 7 April that the Channel Fleet put to sea. On 25 April the Brest fleet of twenty-five sail of the line under Vice-Admiral Etienne Eustache Bruix broke out when Bridport’s ships were blown off the French coast by a strong gale. Throughout May the Channel Fleet scoured the coast of Ireland looking for the enemy, but it eventually became clear that Bruix had sailed for Cadiz. When Bridport temporarily stood aside, Pole hoisted his own flag aboard the Royal George (still commanded by Captain Domett), and in July he led a squadron that blockaded five Spanish sail of the line from Ferrol in Basque Roads. He was unable to bring them to action as the enemy ships had anchored well inshore under the protection of French mortar batteries.
By the end of the month Pole’s squadron had returned to Torbay, and he resumed his post as captain of the fleet in the Channel Fleet through to the following spring.
In May 1800 Admiral Lord Bridport’s resigned from the Channel Fleet command, and was replaced by Admiral Lord St Vincent, who brought his own captain of the fleet. Pole was appointed the commander-in-chief and governor in Newfoundland, and he attended a levee with the King before hoisting his flag aboard the Agincourt 64, Captain George Ryves, eventually sailing on 19 July. As was customary, he returned to England at the end of the fishing season, reaching Portsmouth in mid-November.
He was promoted vice-admiral on 1 January 1801, and despite reports that he would take troop reinforcements out to Egypt or resume his command of the Newfoundland station, he instead departed London for Yarmouth on 3 June. There he took passage for the Baltic aboard the Aeolus 32, Captain John William Spranger, in order to replace the homesick Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson as commander-in-chief in that sea. Arriving in Kioge Bay on 17 June, he hoisted his flag aboard the St. George 98, Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy, being joined by Henry Nicholls as his captain of the fleet. With the Battle of Copenhagen already won, there was little for him to do other than bring the fleet home, which he did at the end of July, despite the difficulty of navigating the Great Belt in the face of strong head winds. On 8 August seven sail of the line and two frigates under his command passed by Harwich under full sail for Portsmouth where they arrived the next morning.
Pole continued to fly his flag aboard the St. George, now commanded by Captain Nicholls, when he was sent to blockade the enemy squadron in Cadiz. He departed Portsmouth in mid-August with six sail of the line from the Baltic fleet, and with others to follow. Two weeks later he incorporated Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez’ squadron off Cadiz into his own, much to the fury of that officer who had so recently been victorious at the Battle of Algeciras. In the event, the Cadiz squadron proved to be a short posting, for on 5 December Pole arrived back at Portsmouth aboard the Ramillies 74, Captain Samuel Osborn, following news of the cessation of hostilities with Spain, having left the remainder of his squadron with Saumarez at Gibraltar. While he was off Cadiz, Pole was created a baronet on 12 September 1801 (for no obvious reason), and there was much conjecture that he would in the near future succeed Admiral Lord Keith in the command of the Mediterranean station.
However, Pole was never to be employed at sea again, but his service to the navy was not yet over. In early January 1802 he travelled down to Portsmouth to raise his flag aboard the Ramillies and sit on the court martial of a number of men who had mutinied in Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell’s squadron in Bantry Bay.
In June 1802, with the French Revolutionary War having now ended, Pole satisfied a long-held ambition to enter Parliament when he was elected the M.P. for Newark. Rapidly earning a reputation for his conscientious attendance of the house, from 1803-6 he chaired the Committee of Naval Abuse, which had been set up by the Earl of St Vincent’s Board of Admiralty following their tour of the various naval facilities in August 1802. Making its first report in May 1803, over the next few years Pole’s committee unearthed enough fraudulent activities, briberies, and peculations to lead to the impeachment of the current First Lord of the Admiralty, Viscount Melville.
Having been promoted admiral on 9 November 1805 and attended Nelson’s funeral on 9 January 1806, Pole became a lord of the admiralty in the Whiggish ‘Ministry of the Talents’ in February. He retained this position until October when he resigned upon the election of a new Whig government. The new First Lord of the Admiralty, Thomas Grenville, offered Pole the post of second in command in the Channel Fleet to Admiral the Earl of St. Vincent. In the event he did not take up this position as, Grenville would not guarantee Pole’s succession to the chief command in the likely event of St. Vincent’s standing down because of his health. Thereafter, Pole’s frequent requests for employment in 1807 and 1808 proved unsuccessful.
From October 1806 until 1818, when he lost the government’s support, Pole sat as the M.P for Plymouth, a seat controlled by the Admiralty, priding himself as an industrious member of parliament who was largely independent of party restrictions. He was never afraid to speak his mind, as when he condemned the appointment of Sir Home Riggs Popham as captain of the fleet under Admiral Lord Gambier for the Baltic campaign of 1807, claiming that the controversial officer lacked both seniority and ‘character’. In February 1807 he spoke against the abolition of slavery bill, describing it as ‘the most barbarous proceeding, even to the negro himself’, and complaining that it was a risk to the empire’s trade, and that in all likelihood the country’s enemies would fill the void in the slave trade.
On 2 January 1815 Pole was nominated a KCB (Knight Commander of the Bath) and on 20 February 1818 he was nominated a GCB (Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath). On the accession in June 1830 of King William IV, he became Master of the Robes, a high office in the royal household. The new monarch was an old friend who had previously been a visitor to Pole’s residence in Hertfordshire. Pole became an admiral of the fleet on 22 July 1830 and died at his seat, Aldenham Abbey, Hertfordshire, on 6 September that year, in his 74th year.
Modest yet strong on discipline, Pole was fair with his men and was admired for his attention to duty. Often prominent in high society, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a lifelong friend of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson. In early 1800’s he was living at Wolveton Park in Hampshire, while in 1812 he purchased Aldenham Abbey, and he also had a residence in Upper Harley Street, London.
Pole was no great orator, but he was a good administrator and was recognised as fair and beyond reproach in his chairmanship of the committee of naval abuse. St. Vincent had earlier described him as ‘an old woman’, but he was happy to appoint him chairman of the committee, having previously recommended him for the vital parliamentary seat of Plymouth. A Whig, he fought patiently for the benefit of the navy in Parliament.