Robert Lambert Baynes

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Sir Robert Lambert Baynes (1796 – 7 September 1869) was a rear admiral of the British Royal Navy. He is credited with adopting a policy of non-intervention that helped to defuse the San Juan Boundary Dispute of 1859 between Britain and the United States of America.

Baynes refused to obey orders from the Governor of the colony of Vancouver Island James Douglas to land marines on San Juan Island to engage American soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General William Selby Harney that had occupied the island on 27 July 1859. Baynes Sound in British Columbia is named for him, and the town of Ganges on Saltspring Island and the waters offshore, Ganges Harbour, are named for his flagship, the HMS Ganges.

[edit] External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online