View source for Alexander Wilmot Schomberg

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2013}}
{{Lead too short|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name = Alexander Wilmot Schomberg
|image =
|image_size =
|alt =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1774|2|24|df=yes}} 
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1850|1|13|1774|2|24|df=yes}}
|birth_place =
|death_place = [[Bognor Regis|Bognor]], [[Sussex]]
|placeofburial =
|placeofburial_label =
|placeofburial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
|nickname =
|birth_name =
|allegiance = [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]<br/>[[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
|branch = [[Royal Navy]]
|serviceyears = 1785–1850
|rank = [[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]]
|commands = {{Plainlist|
* {{HMS|Rambler|1796|6}}
* {{HMS|Windsor Castle|1790|6}}
* {{HMS|Apollo|1805|6}}
* [[French frigate Loire (1796)|HMS ''Loire'']]
* {{HMS|Dictator|1783|6}}
* {{HMS|York|1807|6}}
* {{HMS|Melville|1817|6}}
}}
|battles = 
{{tree list}}
* [[French Revolutionary Wars]]
** [[Battle of Martinique (1794)|Invasion of Martinique]]
** Invasion of Saint Lucia
** [[Invasion of Guadeloupe (1794)|Invasion of Guadeloupe]]
* [[Napoleonic Wars]]
** [[Invasion of Guadeloupe (1810)|Invasion of Guadeloupe]]
** [[Gunboat War]] 
{{tree list/end}}
|awards =
|relations = [[Alexander Schomberg]] (father)<br/>[[Charles Marsh Schomberg]] (brother)
|laterwork =
}}
[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] '''Alexander Wilmot Schomberg''' (24 February 1774 – 13 January 1850) was an officer of the British Royal Navy who served during the [[French Revolutionary Wars|French Revolutionary]] and [[Napoleonic Wars]].

==Biography==

===Family background===
Schomberg was the grandson of Dr. [[Meyer Löw Schomberg]], a practicing Jew who settled in London in 1720. Meyer's son, also named Alexander, converted to the Church of England, a requirement of the [[Test Act]], to enter the Royal Navy<ref>The Jews in the Defence of Britain: Thirteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Cecil Roth,transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England)</ref>
Vol. 15 (1939-1945), pp. 1-28 (28 pages) .  Alexander Wilmot Schomberg was the second son of Captain Sir [[Alexander Schomberg]] and Mary Susannah Arabella, the only child of the Reverend Henry Chalmers, and niece of [[Alleyn baronets|Sir Edmund Aleyn]]. His brother was Captain Sir [[Charles Marsh Schomberg]].<ref name="obyrne">{{cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=Schomberg, Alexander Wilmot |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]]}}</ref>

===Early naval career===
He entered the Navy in April 1785 as a first-class volunteer aboard {{HMS|Dorset||2}},<ref name="obyrne"/> the official yacht of the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]],<ref name="ODNB">{{cite web |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=24817&back= |title=Sir Alexander Schomberg |first=J. K. |last=Laughton |author-link=John Knox Laughton |work=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]] |year=2013 |access-date=17 November 2013}}</ref> commanded by his father in the Irish Sea. He later served as a [[midshipman]] aboard {{HMS|Porcupine|1777|2}}, under the command of Captain Lambert Brabazon, for about 2{{frac|1|2}} years, before joining the 98-gun {{HMS|Impregnable|1786|2}}, flagship of [[Sir Richard Bickerton, 1st Baronet|Sir Richard Bickerton]] at Plymouth, late in 1789. He went on to serve aboard the frigate {{HMS|Lowestoffe|1761|2}}, Captain Edmund Dodd, attached to the [[Channel Fleet]], and then in the 50-gun {{HMS|Trusty|1782|2}}, flagship of Sir [[John Laforey]] on the [[Jamaica Station (Royal Navy)|West Indies Station]]. There he was promoted to lieutenant on 26 July 1793, to serve aboard the sloop {{HMS|Nautilus|1784|2}}, Captain [[Lord Henry Paulet]], and then the frigate {{HMS|Solebay|1785|2}}, Captain William Hancock Kelly.<ref name="obyrne"/>

In ''Solebay'' he commanded 50 men of the [[Naval Brigade]], part of the forces commanded by [[Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey|Sir Charles Grey]], during the operations against [[Battle of Martinique (1794)|Martinique]], [[Saint Lucia]], and [[Invasion of Guadeloupe (1794)|Guadeloupe]] in 1794. He also took part in the unsuccessful attempt recapture Guadeloupe, which had been unexpectedly and successfully re-taken by French Republican forces under [[Victor Hugues]]. Schomberg served for a short time in {{HMS|Boyne|1790|2}}, the flagship of [[John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent|Sir John Jervis]]. However, at the end of the year, having suffered a severe attack of [[yellow fever]], he was sent home to recuperate.<ref name="obyrne"/>

On 22 June 1795 Schomberg was appointed to the 56-gun {{HMS|Glatton|1795|2}}, Captain [[Henry Trollope]], stationed in the North Sea.<ref name="obyrne"/> As an experiment, she was armed with only [[carronade]]s, twenty-eight 32-pounders on the upper deck and twenty-eight 68-pounder carronades on the lower, giving her a distinct advantage in weight of metal against ships armed with standard 32- and 28-pounders in a close action. This was demonstrated on 15 July 1796 when ''Glatton'' fought a French squadron of four frigates, two ship-corvettes, a large brig-corvette and an armed cutter off the coast of [[Flanders]]. In a short but violent confrontation ''Glatton'' attacked the French squadron just before nightfall, her heavy guns doing great damage to the enemy, though she was severely cut up in her sails, rigging and masts. After spending the night making repairs, ''Glatton'' sought out the enemy, but they declined a renewal of the engagement, and sailed for [[Vlissingen|Flushing]]. The French ships were believed to be the [[razee]] [[French ship Diadème (1756)|''Brutus'']], and the frigates {{Ship|French frigate|Incorruptible|1795|2}}, ''Magicienne'' and ''Républicaine''. It was reported that they had suffered considerable damage, and one sank in the harbour.<ref>{{cite book |last1=James |first1=William |author-link1=William James (naval historian) |title=Naval History of Great Britain |volume=I |year=1837 |publisher=[[Richard Bentley (publisher)|Richard Bentley]] |location=London |pages=334–339 |url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval_History/Vol_I/P_334.html |access-date=17 November 2013 }}</ref> During the action, Schomberg, commanding the lower deck, found that he did not have enough men to fight all the guns on both sides, so resorted to forming them into gangs, who loaded and ran the guns out, then moved on to the next gun, while two men pointed and fired. Schomberg was commended for his conduct, and on 28 July was appointed [[first lieutenant]] of the frigate {{HMS|Amphion|1780|2}}. Unfortunately, the ship was destroyed by an explosion while moored at [[HMNB Devonport|Plymouth Dock]] while he was travelling to join her, and it was not until January 1796 that he received command of the 14-gun brig {{HMS|Rambler|1796|2}}, in which he served on the coasts of Holland and Norway, at Newfoundland, off Cherbourg, and on the Guernsey and Jersey stations. He was promoted to [[Commander (Royal Navy)|commander]] on 2 April 1798, but remained in ''Rambler'' until 1 January 1801, when he was promoted to [[post-captain]].<ref name="obyrne"/>

===Post-captain===
In 1804 he held temporary command of the 98-gun {{HMS|Windsor Castle|1790|2}} off Brest.<ref name="obyrne"/> He commanded the frigate {{HMS|Apollo|1805|2}} from October 1806,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Winfield |first1=Rif |title=[[British Warships in the Age of Sail|British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817]] |year=2008 |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |isbn=978-1-86176-246-7 |page=171}}</ref> and on 31 October 1807 he was appointed to command of the frigate [[French frigate Loire (1796)|''Loire'']]. In early 1808 ''Loire'' and the frigate {{HMS|Success|1781|2}}, Captain John Ayscough, sailed to the seas around Greenland on fishery protection duties, venturing as far north as [[77th parallel north|77° 30' N]]. At the end of the same year, accompanied by {{HMS|Amelia|1796|2}} and {{HMS|Champion|1779|2}}, he escorted a convoy of 168 transport ships, carrying 14,000 troops, from [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]] to [[A Coruña|Corunna]]. He then co-operated with Spanish [[Partisan (military)|partisans]] on the coasts of [[Galicia, Spain|Galicia]], [[Asturias]], and [[Biscay]], brought 100 Russian prisoners-of-war from the [[Tagus]] to England, and on 5 February 1809 captured the French ship ''Hebe''<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16228 |date=11 February 1809 |page=193 |nolink=yes }}</ref> (which later served as {{HMS|Ganymede|1809|6}}). Early in 1810 he transported a battalion of the [[King's Royal Rifle Corps|60th Regiment]] from England to [[Barbados]]; and during the [[Invasion of Guadeloupe (1810)|siege of Guadeloupe]], he commanded a squadron stationed to intercept enemy vessels. He returned to England with the French [[Captain-General]] [[Jean Augustin Ernouf]] and his suite on board, surviving a hurricane which sank two transports full of prisoners. He then proceeded to the coast of Norway, where he saved the sloop {{HMS|Snake|1797|2}} from an attack from eight Danish brigs. Until 1812 Schomberg was chiefly employed in command of a light squadron in the Baltic. He once escorted an outward-bound West India convoy as far as [[Madeira]]; and in December 1810 narrowly escaped disaster being in company with {{HMS|Minotaur|1793|2}}, shortly before she was wrecked.<ref name="obyrne"/>

On 21 March 1812 he was appointed to command of {{HMS|Dictator|1783|2}}, and on 13 August to the [[74-gun]] {{HMS|York|1807|2}}. He took part in the blockade of [[Rochefort, Charente-Maritime|Rochefort]] and [[L'Orient]], and in 1814, with the 74-gun {{HMS|Vengeur|1810|2}} and 20-gun {{HMS|Erne|1813|2}}, transported troops from Bordeaux to Quebec, somehow managing to cram no less than 1,000 men on board each 74 in addition to their usual complements. ''York'' was paid off in August 1815.<ref name="obyrne"/>

At the end of the war Schomberg made several suggestions to improve the [[victualling]] the seamen and marines, some of which were eventually adopted several years later. One of these was to substitute tea for half the usual ration of spirits. In 1818 he privately circulated a paper ''Naval Suggestions'', outlining his ideas; and in 1832 published his ''Practical Hints on Building, Rigging, Arming, and Equipping His Majesty's Ships-of-War, &c.''<ref name="obyrne"/>

===Post-war career===
Schomberg remained unemployed until on 1 March 1829 he was appointed to the 74-gun {{HMS|Melville|1817|2}}. He commanded her in the Mediterranean until promoted to rear admiral on 22 July 1830.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=18709 |date=23 July 1830 |page=1541 |nolink=yes }}</ref> On 23 November 1841 he was promoted to vice admiral, and to admiral on 9 October 1849.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Admiral Schomberg died at [[Bognor Regis|Bognor]], Sussex, on 13 January 1850.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Births, Marriages & Deaths |magazine=[[The Spectator]] |issue=1125 |date=19 January 1850 |page=18 |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-january-1850/18/births |access-date=17 November 2013}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Schomberg was twice married, firstly to Catherine Anna, only daughter of Stepney Rawson Stepney, of [[Durrow, County Laois|Durrow]], Ireland, by whom he had one son, [[Herbert Schomberg]], who became a naval officer and eventually attained the rank of rear admiral; and secondly on 1 October 1804, to Anne, the youngest daughter of Rear-Admiral Richard Smith of [[Poulton-cum-Seacombe]], by whom he had two further sons; [[Charles Frederick Schomberg]], who became a vice admiral, and [[George Augustus Schomberg]] who became an officer in the [[Royal Marine Artillery]].<ref name="obyrne"/>

==References==
{{Wikisource author|wislink=Royal Naval Biography/Schomberg, Alexander Wilmot|title=Royal Naval Biography/Schomberg, Alexander Wilmot}}
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schomberg, Alexander Wilmot}}
[[Category:1774 births]]
[[Category:1850 deaths]]
[[Category:British people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:Royal Navy admirals]]
[[Category:Schomberg family]]