| Henry Rous | |
|---|---|
Detail of a portrait of Henry John Rous with George Payne, by G. Thompson |
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| Born | 23 January 1795 |
| Died | 19 June 1877 |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | Royal Navy |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands held | HMS Rainbow HMS Pique |
Admiral Henry John Rous (23 January 1795 – 19 June 1877) was a Royal Navy officer and sportsman.
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Born the second son of John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke, Rous was educated at Westminster School, and entered the Royal Navy in 1808, serving as a midshipman in the Walcheren Campaign the following year.[1] He was afterwards appointed to the HMS Bacchante, and received a medal for bravery in various actions and expeditions.
In 1823 he was made captain, and in 1825 he was given command of HMS Rainbow.[1] He served in the Indian and New Holland stations from 1823 to 1829. In April 1827, he organised Sydney's first regatta. In August 1828, he explored the Tweed and Richmond Rivers in northeastern New South Wales.[2] The area between these rivers is known as Rous County, but counties in Australia are not widely-known and are mainly used for cadastral purposes. While in Moreton Bay he named Rous Channel, Dunwich, Queensland, Stradbroke Island after his family titles and influenced the naming of Ipswich, Queensland.
In 1834 he was appointed to the command of the HMS Pique, a 36-gun frigate, which ran ashore on the coast of Labrador and was greatly damaged. Rous, however, brought her across the Atlantic Ocean with a sprung foremast and without keel, forefoot or rudder, and though the ship was making 23 inches of water an hour.[1]
His father owned a stud farm in Suffolk and won the 1815 2,000 Guineas with the colt Tigris. Rous, always fond of the sport became a steward of the Jockey Club in 1838, a position he held almost uninterruptedly to his death. In 1855 he was appointed public handicapper. In that role he introduced the weight-for-age scale.[3] He managed the stables of the Duke of Bedford at Newmarket for many years, and wrote a work on On the Laws and Practice of Horse Racing that procured for him the title of the Blackstone of the Turf.
The Rous Memorial Stakes was named in his honor.
At the 1841 general election, he was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Westminster, and in 1846 Sir Robert Peel appointed him Fourth Naval Lord.[4] However, this appointment triggered a by-election, which Rous lost to the Liberal candidate, De Lacy Evans, whom he had defeated in 1841. He died at 13 Berkeley Square in London on 19 June 1877.[1]
For the naval career of Admiral Rous see O'Byrne, Naval Biographical Dictionary (London, 1849). A vivid sketch of him as a turf authority will be found in Day's Turf Celebrities (London, 1891).
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir De Lacy Evans John Temple Leader |
Member of Parliament for Westminster 1841–1846 |
Succeeded by John Temple Leader Sir De Lacy Evans |
| Military offices | ||
| Preceded by Sir William Gordon |
Fourth Naval Lord 1846 |
Succeeded by Lord John Hay |