George Byron, 7th Baron Byron

Admiral The Right Honourable The Lord Byron
Birth name	George Anson Byron
Born	(1789-03-08)8 March 1789
Died	1 March 1868(1868-03-01) (aged 78)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1800-1862
Rank	Admiral
Commands held	HMS Blonde
Battles/wars	Napoleonic Wars
Relations	The Lord Byron (Cousin) Elizabeth Mary Chandos Pole (Wife)

Admiral George Anson Byron, 7th Baron Byron (8 March 1789 – 1 March 1868), was a British naval officer, and the seventh Baron Byron, in 1824 succeeding his cousin the poet George Gordon Byron in that peerage. As a career naval officer, he was notable for being his predecessor's opposite in temperament and lifestyle.

He was the only son of George Anson Byron and Charlotte Henrietta Dallas, and grandson of the admiral and explorer The Hon. John Byron, who circumnavigated the world with George Anson in 1740-44.

He married Elizabeth Mary Chandos Pole on 18 March 1816. She was the daughter of Sacheverell Pole Esq., of Radbourne Hall, b. 16 June 1769. During this man's lifetime, he became of representative of the great Sir John Chandos, K.G., and by Sign Manual, or Deed Pole assumed the additional surname of Chandos. Elizabeth was descended from a well documented long line of the Pole family, including Cardinal Pole, who at the time of Henry VIII, was the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury. Elizabeth's mother, Mary, was the daughter of the Rev. Henry Ware, D.D., Rector of Balrothey.^[1] The couple had eight children:

• The Hon. Georgiana Byron (?–1893)
• The Hon. Mabel Charlotte Byron (?–1929)
• The Hon. Mary Anne Byron (c.1817–1885)
• George Anson Byron, 8th Baron Byron (1818–1870)
• Francis Xavier Byron (1820–??)
• The Hon. Frederick Byron (1822–1861)
• The Rev. Hon. Augustus Byron (1828–1907)
• The Rev. Hon. William Byron (1831–1907)

Naval career

Byron joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in December 1800, serving in the Napoleonic Wars, and attaining the rank of captain in 1814. In 1824 Byron was chosen to accompany homewards the bodies of Hawaiian monarchs Liholiho (known as King Kamehameha II) and Queen Kamāmalu, who had died of measles during a state visit to England.^[2] He sailed on the HMS Blonde in September 1824, accompanied by several naturalists and, amongst his lieutenants, Edward Belcher.^[3] He toured the islands and recorded his observations. With the consent of Christian missionaries to the islands, he also removed wooden carvings and other artifacts of the chiefs of ancient Hawaii from the temple ruins of Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau.^[4] On his return journey in 1825, Lord Byron discovered and charted Malden Island, which he named after his surveying officer, Mauke, and Starbuck Island.^[5] Starbuck was named in honour of Capt. Valentine Starbuck, an American whaler who had sighted the island while carrying the Hawaiian royal couple to England in 1823–1824, but had probably been previously sighted by his cousin and fellow-whaler Capt. Obed Starbuck in 1823.^[6] Malden may have been the island sighted by another whaling captain William Clark in 1823, aboard the Winslow.^[7] Lord Byron retired as Admiral in 1862.^[5]

See also

• European and American voyages of scientific exploration
• O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). " Bynon, John Corrie".  A Naval Biographical Dictionary. John Murray. Wikisource. 

Notes

References

• Dunmore, John (1992); Who's Who in Pacific Navigation, Australia:Melbourne University Press, ISBN 0-522-84488-X
• Quanchi, Max & Robson, John, (2005); Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands, USA: Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8108-5395-7
• Bloxam, Andrew (1925), Diary of Andrew Bloxam: naturalist of the "Blonde" on her trip from England to the Hawaiian islands, 1824-25 Volume 10 of Bernice P. Bishop Museum special publication
• George Byron, 7th Baron Byron, at thepeerage.com (accessed 26 November 2009)