Richard Saunders Dundas

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Vice Admiral Richard Saunders Dundas KCB RN (1802 - 1861) was a British naval officer.

Son of Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, he was born on 11 April 1802, educated at Harrow College and became a captain in the Royal Navy in 1824. He commanded the Volage on the South American Station, 1825, and the Warspite in Australia, 1827. From 1828-1830 he was secretary to his father, who was serving a second term as First Sea Lord. He later served in the Mediterranean, South Africa and the East Indies, including the First Opium War, for his services in which he was awarded a Companion of the Bath in 1841. He was then again (1845-6) Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, this time Lord Haddington, and from 1848 served in the Mediterranean as Captain of HMS Powerful (84). He became a Rear-Admiral in July 1853. He was a Lord of the Admiralty from 1853 to 1861, rising from Third to First Naval Lord. On 19 February 1855 he was appointed to the command of the Fleet in the Baltic Sea in succession to Sir Charles Napier. Relations between Napier and the Admiralty had been strained to say the least, and in Dundas they were appointing one of their own, with the requisite diplomatic and management skills. As Napier had before him, Dundas enforced a blockade of Russian ports and his ships raided along the coast of Finland, co-operating also with a French Fleet under Admiral Penaud. Dundas knew he was expected to attack the fortress of Sveaborg, which Napier had declined to do, and duly did so in August. Although he inflicted heavy casualties and some material damage, the fortifications were virtually unaffected and the Anglo-French fleet exhausted its entire ammunition in the attempt. Nevertheless this was judged a success, and Dundas would have continued to command the fleet in 1856 had peace not been negotiated. He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1856 and was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour and a Vice Admiral in 1858. He served as First Sea Lord until his death on 3 June 1861.