Admiral Sir Barrington Reynolds was a senior and long-serving officer of the British Royal Navy who went to sea with his father aged only nine during the French Revolutionary Wars and was captured by the French aged eleven.
12 Facts About Barrington Reynolds
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Barrington Reynolds was honoured for this service and retired again to his family seat in Cornwall, where he died aged 75.
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Barrington Reynolds was the second son of Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, a successful and long-serving Royal Navy officer who had once served under Samuel Barrington who is probably the origin of Barrington's Christian name.
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Amazon too was wrecked, but Captain Barrington Reynolds succeeded in beaching her rather than running her onto rocks and as result, all but six of her crew survived to become prisoners of war.
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In 1804 his elder brother, Lieutenant Robert Barrington Reynolds, was killed in action off Martinique.
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In Ganges, Barrington Reynolds participated in the bombardment of Acre during operations against Egyptian forces.
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Barrington Reynolds was promoted to rear-admiral in 1848, and given command at the Cape of Good Hope Station, with instructions to clamp down on the illegal slave traders who operated from West Africa.
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Barrington Reynolds was so successful off Africa, that at Admiralty dispatched him to cruise off the Brazilian coast on the same service.
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In reply to the protests, Barrington Reynolds wrote to the Admiralty that "Nothing can be done with the Brazilian government on this matter except by compulsion".
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The actions of the forces under Barrington Reynolds' command have been credited with destroying the Brazilian slave trade completely by 1851.
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Barrington Reynolds was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
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Barrington Reynolds died in 1861 at the family home and was buried in St Clement's Churchyard near Truro.