108 Facts About George Tryon

George Tryon had three brothers: the eldest, Thomas, joined the 7th Royal Fusiliers, fought at Alma and Inkerman and served through the Indian Mutiny.

George Tryon was the third son: the fourth, Richard, served in the Rifle Brigade.

George Tryon attended a preparatory school and then Eton College before becoming a naval cadet in 1848, two years older than usual, aged sixteen.

George Tryon was described as 'a tall lanky lad nearly six feet high, full of spirits and fond of a lark'.

George Tryon was a two-decker sailing ship, since steam power was only then being introduced into the navy.

George Tryon narrowly avoided a posting to Imaum, a hulk lying in Port Royal harbour which needed crew, which would have been a very unpromising start to his career.

George Tryon started to make sketches of the places he visited, which while not very good at the start, improved steadily.

George Tryon commented on the great welcome given to them once it became known that they were English.

George Tryon commented on the absence of beggars in the streets.

Admiral William Robert Mends later said of George Tryon, 'He served with me, when I was commander of the Vengeance, for two years as a midshipman, and a better young officer never existed; ever full of energy and zeal.

George Tryon wrote home, explaining the British desire to create a land route to India, and the continuous vying for power in the region between Britain and France.

Part of George Tryon's duties included keeping watch on the flagship before exercises, including going out in a boat at night to see what preparations were being made for the following day.

George Tryon passed his seamanship examination on 17 March 1854, at which time he was already acting mate.

George Tryon spent only eight months as mate, then six years as Lieutenant and five and a half years as commander, which was one of the fastest rates of promotion at the time.

George Tryon took and passed examinations at the Royal naval college Portsmouth and HMS Excellent before returning to a ship.

Commander Mends from the Vengeance had now become flag-captain to Admiral Lyons and requested George Tryon be appointed to his ship.

George Tryon now acted as aide-de-camp to the admiral, travelling ashore to report progress in the siege of Sebastopol and later describing the plundering of the town by the victorious armies.

George Tryon was present at the fall of Kinburn on 17 October 1855, where he was placed in charge of fire-fighting parties.

Mends chose George Tryon to go to Piraeus to summon help rather than a more senior officer because of his 'marked intelligence'.

George Tryon visited Naples, Rome, Florence and Pompeii, where the volcano was unusually active.

George Tryon's considerations turned to his career, which risked faltering because he was older than other officers and lacked a patron.

George Tryon commented that some of the noisiest and most eccentrically dressed attendees were those on the steamer bringing members of the House of Commons.

George Tryon was placed on half pay after promotion to commander in October 1860.

George Tryon was given the task of rescuing the British barque Energy, which had run aground on the coast of Sicily seven miles from Pozzallo, and had been abandoned.

Once again George Tryon received a commendation in the Admiral's report.

George Tryon recommended that fines to sailors absent from duty or incapable should be limited to forfeiting pay for the time they failed to carry out their duties, and this was adopted.

George Tryon reported that in the event of war, stores immediately available at Gibraltar might be vitally important to the fleet, and that at such a time it would be virtually impossible to get back storage space relinquished in peace time.

George Tryon was one of the few at that time to recognise the port's strategic significance for the fleet.

George Tryon was attached to Octavia, but his duties were to act as transport officer at Annesley Bay, which was to be used as a staging post for troops and supplies for Sir Robert Napier's expedition to Magdala in Abyssinia.

George Tryon arrived in Bombay on 10 October 1867 where preparations were already underway.

George Tryon's duties involved early morning meetings ashore with military authorities, days spent unloading and organising ships, and evenings spent in preparation for the next.

George Tryon was commended for his organisational skills and tact in dealing with all the disparate parties and complaining ships' captains.

George Tryon was awarded the CB for his services in Abyssinia.

George Tryon injured his leg while fighting a fire on board one of the ships, and on returning to England, at first could not walk a modest distance without resting.

Clementina was the daughter of Gilbert Heathcote who was a neighbour of the George Tryon's and had been a friend since childhood.

The appointment normally went to an experienced captain with ten years' service, whereas George Tryon had yet to serve at sea in that rank.

George Tryon was somewhat cynical in his views of human nature but his cynicism was of a good humoured and harmless cast.

George Tryon commented to a friend that he would get one of the admirals to carry his bag for him, which he duly did by asking the admiral to hold his bag while he opened a way through the crowd.

George Tryon then avoided reclaiming his luggage until they reached their destination.

George Tryon took the opportunity to suggest improvements to her final fitting out.

George Tryon showed concern for the wellbeing of his men and the better ordering of the Navy.

George Tryon wrote a memo to the Admiralty recommending that the penalties for desertion should be reduced, suggesting that a number of those deserting were of little use to the navy and should be let go, while others who were good seamen, but who had some urgent personal reason for absconding, were afraid to return later because of the severe penalties.

George Tryon instituted a programme of weighing his men and ensuring they got enough food, noting that if, as frequently happened on board ship, the men weighed less by the end of a tour than at the start, then likely their strength and fitness was reduced too.

George Tryon instituted a 'dry canteen' on board to try to improve their diet.

George Tryon had to make the difficult decision whether to try to rescue him, because any small boat risked sinking, taking her crew down.

All went well, and George Tryon received congratulations from the other captains for his skill in carrying out the rescue.

George Tryon noted the improved health of the sailors this time, which he ascribed to the fact that fresh water was now produced on board ship rather than having to be brought aboard.

In June 1877 George Tryon was replaced by Captain Jago as commander of Raleigh after a tour of three and a half years and returned home.

From June 1877 to October 1878, George Tryon remained in England.

Colomb and George Tryon represented divergent views on signalling, but all members of the committee were experts in the field while Kerr and Hope held the balance.

Britain had just acquired Cyprus, which it was intended to develop into a base for 10,000 troops and a resort, but of which George Tryon was skeptical because of its poor climate and lack of a good harbour.

George Tryon was commended by the king for his handling of the British ships.

In May 1881 George Tryon was sent as senior officer with a group of ships to patrol the coast of Tunisia.

George Tryon suggested to the senior French officer, Captain Rieunnier, that perhaps a mistake had been made.

George Tryon was instructed to send reports directly to the Admiralty and foreign office, rather than to his commander, Admiral Seymour.

George Tryon was commended for his handling of the affair by Earl Granville from the foreign office, the Lords of the Admiralty, and by the French Government.

George Tryon had four months leave before being appointed Permanent Secretary to the Admiralty.

George Tryon demonstrated great powers of persuasion and an ability to get his way in an argument without offending.

George Tryon's appointment was initially temporary, following the sudden death of the previous appointee, but he proved a great success.

George Tryon's guiding rule in choosing which invitations to accept was to seek out people who might have useful information.

In 1884 George Tryon was promoted to rear admiral and placed in command of the Australian Station.

George Tryon proposed that a system of indemnity should be introduced, so that anyone whose property was destroyed resisting an attack would be compensated by the colonies as a whole, accepting that local resistance wherever it might occur was to the benefit of all.

George Tryon took an interest in furthering development of the supply depot and repair dock in Sydney Harbour, and the construction of a new sailors' home to replace an existing one which had become overtaken by demand.

George Tryon visited the beautiful hot lakes and terraces of the volcanic region, shortly before it was wiped back to blackened ash by an earthquake and eruption.

George Tryon was commended and thanked by the lords of the Admiralty for his efforts in encouraging adoption of a combined defensive position by the Australian colonies, and contributed in some part to encouraging the states to work increasingly closer together and move towards unification.

George Tryon stood for parliament in a by-election held on 1 July 1887 in the Spalding division of Lincolnshire.

George Tryon stood on a platform of maintaining the union of Britain with Ireland, which mirrored his own views from his Australian experience that the colonies there should unite.

George Tryon was aided by unionists from northern Ireland who came to plead their cause, but opposed by a local candidate who had had two years to become known and had his own supporting Parnellites from Ireland to tell their own stories.

From June 1887 to April 1888 George Tryon remained on half pay enjoying time with his family.

George Tryon suffered a broken arm in a fall from a stable attic while visiting his mother in law, Lady Willoughby de Eresby at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire.

George Tryon showed considerable regard for his mother in law, who died not long afterwards in November 1888.

George Tryon was promoted to vice-admiral on 15 August 1889.

In 1891 George Tryon chaired a committee on naval reserves, where he expressed his views on the importance of cooperation between merchant shipping and the navy in times of war.

George Tryon felt it important that men from the reserve should wear the same uniform as regular sailors, so that no sense of inferiority might attach to them.

George Tryon had been impressed by the quality of merchant sailors serving in the Naval Brigade in Crimea.

George Tryon was consulted on the best design for new battleships following the naval defence act of 1889, which had authorised seventy new ships including ten battleships.

George Tryon favoured a high freeboard to allow ships to perform well in rough seas, guns at least twenty-three feet above the waterline, and a minimum length of 380 feet.

George Tryon opposed the very large 100-ton guns which had become available at that time, preferring smaller guns of around 45 tons.

George Tryon commanded the 'Achill' fleet based in Berehaven in Bantry Bay on the south-west coast of Ireland and Lough Swilly on the north coast.

George Tryon chose the nickname 'Achill admiral' for himself, from the name of an island midway between the two bases.

George Tryon was of the view at the outset that there was little he could do directly against the superior force, so he set about attempting to wear down his enemy, using feints and false alarms to reduce their attentiveness.

Meanwhile, George Tryon took the remaining larger ships through the eastern entrance, giving the appearance of an attempt to break through the blockading ships.

George Tryon sent his deputy Admiral Rowley to guard Liverpool, while himself proceeding to coal at Portland, ready to defend the Thames and London.

George Tryon claimed Belleisle, which had been guarding the port, as captured, and 'destroyed' the shipping there.

George Tryon was criticised by officers from the enemy fleet that he had not given due warning to merchant vessels before attacking, nor allowed their crews time to escape as required under international law.

George Tryon had bombarded defenceless cities and 'killed' civilians, and it was claimed he used false flags and captured signalling equipment.

George Tryon was praised by the Admiralty for his handling of the fleet, but his opponents in turn felt criticised for their failings.

Shortly after the manoeuvres, George Tryon wrote a fictional history of the 'Achill' campaign, describing the opening events of the war against a foreign naval power which had just been played out in the exercise, then going on with an account of what happened next.

George Tryon's headquarters was at Milford Haven but he moved to Falmouth during the exercise.

George Tryon succeeded in intercepting him, and was deemed to capture Camperdown, Immortalite and Hero.

George Tryon managed to seal up Baird's slower ships in Queenstown.

George Tryon was now joined by the slower but powerful Inflexible and proceeded down the east coast of Britain, bombarding Newcastle and Sunderland.

The four umpires found that Tryon had succeeded in his objective as well as might be done with the inadequate ships at his disposal, but that had the exercise continued his capture of enemy ships would have given him an advantage.

Seymour's task was to remain at sea interfering with British trade but avoiding action, while George Tryon was to attempt to chase him down.

Seymour was given 24 hours start from Berehaven before George Tryon was allowed to sail from English ports, although George Tryon was allowed to use cruisers to scout his movements.

George Tryon succeeded in defending the Channel, but could not prevent Seymour intercepting merchant ships 300 miles away at sea.

George Tryon commented that although this year's exercises were on the face of it the least exciting, they had still been the most useful of the three.

George Tryon became a strong supporter of the idea that in time of war there should be a national insurance scheme for merchant vessels.

George Tryon claimed that he had first heard of the idea from Admiral Hopkins.

George Tryon questioned whether any amount of compensation would convince owners to send ships if they expected them to be lost.

George Tryon himself argued that the scheme might only be needed at the onset of hostility until shippers had become accustomed to the safest ways of maintaining trade.

Admiral George Tryon was concerned that the normal system of signalling between ships would become unworkable in real war conditions.

George Tryon was not on board, as the fleet ships went individually for torpedo practice.

George Tryon arrived from Malta on board the Surprise, having given orders for the dockyard tug Sampson, Phaeton, Edinburgh, Dreadnought, Scout and Humber to come to assist.

Captains Bourke from Victoria, Noel from Nile and Wilson from Sans Pareil accompanied George Tryon, who received the Medjidie of the first class from the Sultan.

George Tryon directed that the junior midshipman should accept the prize for the winners, on the grounds that he would most likely live longest to remember the event.

George Tryon went down with his ship, his last reported words being "It is all my fault".

George Tryon was considered by many of his contemporaries to be a supremely competent yet radical officer, but with a strong and sometimes overbearing personality.