Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner

The Lord Gardner
Alan Gardner by William Beechey
Born	12 February 1742 Uttoxeter, England
Died	1 January 1809 (aged 66)
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain  Great Britain and Ireland
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1755–1800
Rank	Admiral
Commands held	Jamaica Station Cork Station Portsmouth Command
Relations	Alan Hyde Gardner (eldest son), Robert Barrie (nephew)
Other work	MP for Plymouth and, later, Westminster.

Admiral Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner (12 February 1742 – 1 January 1809) was a British Royal Navy officer and peer of the realm. He was regarded by some as one of the Georgian era's most dashing frigate captains and, ultimately, a respected senior admiral.

Naval career

Gardner joined the Royal Navy in 1755. Promoted to Captain in 1766, his first command was the fireship HMS Raven.^[1] He commanded a number of frigates before being promoted to a ship of the line. In 1782 he commanded a ship at the Battle of the Saintes and in 1786, as Commodore of the Jamaica Station (consisting of HMS Europa and HMS Experiment),^[2] he suppressed smuggling in the Gulf of Mexico and ordered detailed hydrographic surveys of Caribbean locations of interest to the Navy. During this time, he commanded and probably mentored future famous officers such as George Vancouver, Peter Puget and Joseph Whidbey.^[3]

He was a Member of the Board of Admiralty from 1790 to 1795 and was then promoted to full Admiral in 1795. As Rear Admiral in November 1793, he was the first officer to articulate a growing conviction in the navy that lemons were the best cure for scurvy and, going against prevailing medical opinion, demanded a supply for his ships. The resulting scurvy-free voyage of HMS Suffolk to India was a crucial element in the Admiralty's decision in 1795 to issue lemon juice as a daily ration in the navy - a policy which drastically minimised outbreaks of scurvy.^[4] During the Mutiny at Spithead in 1797, Gardner negotiated directly with the mutineers, until he lost his temper, seized a mutineer by the throat and threatened to hang the lot. This nearly led to his own demise at the hands of the mutineers, but cooler heads prevailed.^[5]

In 1800 he became Commander-in-Chief of the Cork Station.^[6] That year he was also created Baron Gardner, of Uttoxeter, in the Peerage of Ireland and in 1806 the title of Baron Gardner in the Peerage of the United Kingdom was created for him. He was Member of Parliament for Plymouth and, later, Westminster. He was briefly Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth from March to June 1803^[7] but returned to the Cork Station after that. In 1807 he was made Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet and he died in office on 1 January 1809.^[6]

Family

Gardner was born in Uttoxeter. He married Susannah Hyde Gale (c. 1760 - 20 April 1823) on 20 May 1769.^[8] They had two sons. The older son, Alan Hyde Gardner, 2nd Baron Gardner, became an admiral in the Royal Navy.^[9] Gale was a Jamaican heiress and the daughter of Francis Gale, a plantation owner, and Susanna Hall.^[8]

Through his brother, Major Valentine Gardner, he was the uncle of Colonel William Linnæus Gardner, an Indian officer.^[10]

Legacy

An East Indiaman was named after Admiral Gardner; it was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, 24 January 1809.^[11] It was carrying a large number of copper 10 and 20 cash coins minted by the East India Company for circulation in the Madras Presidency.^[12] The coins were preserved in tightly sealed barrels and large numbers were retrieved around 1986. They are frequently packaged and sold as inexpensive "shipwreck coins."^[13]

References

1. Wing, Robert and Newell, Gordon (1979). Peter Puget: Lieutenant on the Vancouver Expedition, fighting British naval officer, the man for whom Puget Sound was named. Gray Beard Publishing. ISBN 0-933686-00-5.
2. Cundall, p. xx
3. Naish, John (1996). The Interwoven Lives of George Vancouver, Archibald Menzies, Joseph Whidbey and Peter Puget: The Vancouver Voyage of 1791-1795. The Edward Mellen Press, Ltd. ISBN 0-7734-8857-X.
4. Vale, Brian (2008). "The Conquest of Scurvy in the Royal Navy 1793-1800: a Challenge to Current Orthodoxy". The Mariner's Mirror, 160-175.
5. Dugan, James (1965). The great mutiny. Putnam.
6. Laughton 1889.
7. History in Portsmouth
8. The Gale/Gayle Families of the West Indies (portrait of Susanna Hyde Gale included)
9. William Courthope ed. Gardner entry p. 323 Debrett's Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed for J.G. & F. Rivington, 1838 - 781 pages. Retrieved from Google Books.
10. Chichester 1889.
11. "Wrecks of the Britannia, & Admiral Gardner, East Indiamen, on the Goodwin Sands, 24 Jan 1809". National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 4 March 2007.
12. Soho Mint: The Loss of the Admiral Gardner
13. Coin Community

Attribution

 Laughton, John Knox (1889). "Gardner, Alan". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography 20. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 430. ; Endnotes:

• Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 583
• Ralfe's Nav. Biog. i. 407
• Foster's Peerage
• Jerdan's National Portrait Gallery

Sources

• Cundall, Frank (1915). Historic Jamaica. West India Committee.

External links

• Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner, illustrations in the National Maritime Museum
• Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner, illustrations in the National Portrait Gallery
• Alan Gardner at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Heart of Oak: Letters from Admiral Gardner (1742-1809), edited Francis Noel Day, 30 September 2015, ISBN 978-0956934642 - a recently published collection of correspondence
• Archival material relating to Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner listed at the UK National Archives