Captain Vesey Hamilton

A carte-de-visite portrait of Captain (later Admiral) Richard Vesey Hamilton (1829-1912).

Born in 1829, his father was Rector of Little Chart in Kent. He was educated at the Royal Naval School in Camberwell and joined the Royal Navy in 1843.

In 1852 he served as a lieutenant on HMS Resolute where he was involved in a search for Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition to find the North West passage. In 1856 he joined HMS Haughty and took part in the Battle of Fatshan Creek during the Second Opium War. Between 1862 and 1873 he commanded successively the Vesuvius, the Sphinx and the Achilles.

In 1875 he was made captain-superintendent of Pembroke Dock and in 1878 he was appointed Director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty. In 1880 he was given a command off the coast of Ireland. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, China Station in 1885, Second Naval Lord in 1888 and First Naval Lord in 1889. He retired in 1891. He died in Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire in 1912.

Photographer unidentified. The location is Jamaica.

An inked inscription verso in a period hand reads: 'Captain Vesey Hamilton R.N. / H.M.S. Sphinx / Jamaica, April 1868'.