Michael Seymour

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Admiral Sir Michael Seymour GCB RN (3 December 1802 – 23 February 1887 near Horndean) was a British admiral and the uncle of Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, also an admiral. He was the third son of another Michael Seymour (1768–1834) who rose to the rank of Rear-Admiral.

Michael Seymour entered the Royal Navy in 1813. He made Lieutenant in 1822, Commander in 1824 and was posted Captain in 1826. From 1833 to 1835 he was captain of the survey ship HMS Challenger, and was wrecked in her off the coast of Chile. From 1851 to 1854 he was Commodore Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard. In 1854 he served under Sir Charles Napier in the Baltic during the Crimean War, in the capacity of Captain of the Fleet. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral that same year and, when the Baltic campaign was resumed in 1855 under Admiral the Hon. Richard Saunders Dundas, Seymour was second in command, flying his flag in HMS Exmouth. He was made KCB at the end of 1855.

On 19 February 1856 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the East Indies station, which included the coast of China. Flying his flag in HMS Calcutta, he conducted the operations arising out of the affair of the lorcha Arrow (Second Opium War); he destroyed the Chinese fleet in June 1857, took Canton in December, and in 1858 he captured the forts on the Pei Ho (Hai River), compelling the Chinese government to consent to the Treaties of Tianjin. He was made GCB in 1859. He sat as Member of Parliament for Devonport from 1859 to 1863. In 1864 he was promoted to the rank of admiral and was Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, till 1866. He retired in 1870.