Admiral John Byng was a British Royal Navy officer who was court-martialled and executed by firing squad.
36 Facts About John Byng
2.
John Byng served as Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland Colony in 1742, Commander-in-Chief, Leith, 1745 to 1746 and was a member of Parliament from 1751 until his death.
3.
John Byng had sailed for Minorca at the head of a hastily assembled fleet of vessels, some of which were in poor condition.
4.
John Byng then elected to return to Gibraltar to repair his ships.
5.
John Byng was born at Southill Park in the parish of Southhill in Bedfordshire, England, the fourth son of Rear-Admiral George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington.
6.
George John Byng was a highly skilled naval commander, had won distinction in a series of battles, and was held in esteem by the monarchs whom he served.
7.
Early in his career, John Byng was assigned to a series of Mediterranean postings.
8.
John Byng was promoted to rear-admiral in 1745 and appointed Commander-in-Chief, Leith, a post he held until 1746.
9.
John Byng, stationed off Scotland, thwarted the resupply of the Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.
10.
John Byng was promoted to vice-admiral in 1747 and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.
11.
John Byng served as a Member of Parliament for Rochester from 1751 until his death.
12.
John Byng never married and the house was left to a brother's eldest son, a descendant of whom still owns it.
13.
John Byng's orders were multiplex, his first target being the alleged new French fleet at Toulon, while the British garrison of Fort St Philip at Port Mahon was a secondary concern.
14.
John Byng's fleet was delayed in Portsmouth for over a month and Byng was ordered by the Admiralty Office to outfit other channel ships ahead of his own fleet.
15.
John Byng arrived at Gibraltar and was told of the French landing.
16.
John Byng wrote a letter to the Admiralty Office explaining the situation as dire.
17.
Many military historians have interpreted that dispatch as John Byng preparing for failure and that John Byng did not believe that the garrison could hold out against the French force.
18.
John Byng had gained the weather gage, which both forces had attempted to gain.
19.
John Byng called for a lasking manoeuvre, meaning that all his ships would turn in unison and, with the wind behind them, sail straight toward the enemy bow first.
20.
John Byng was told by Captain Arthur Gardiner, his flag captain, that he could set full sail for the enemy, thus providing an example to the three bottled-up ships on what to do.
21.
John Byng declined, recalling that Admiral Thomas Mathews had been dismissed for doing so at the Battle of Toulon in 1744.
22.
John Byng remained near Minorca for four days without establishing communication with the fort or sighting the French.
23.
Protest against John Byng began with effigy burnings mostly in port cities throughout England and one as far away as Boston, Massachusetts.
24.
Clearly the government had chosen John Byng to take the fall for their neglect of the Mediterranean theatre.
25.
John Byng's perceived failure to relieve the garrison at Minorca caused public outrage among fellow officers and the country at large.
26.
John Byng was brought home to be tried by court-martial for breach of the Articles of War which had been revised eleven years prior to mandate capital punishment for officers who did not do their utmost against the enemy, either in battle or pursuit.
27.
John Byng's captain had done nothing in order to prepare the vessel for action and was killed almost immediately by a broadside.
28.
However, its principal findings were that John Byng had failed to keep his fleet together while engaging the French; that his flagship had opened fire at too great a distance to have any effect; and that he should have proceeded to the immediate relief of Minorca rather than returning to Gibraltar.
29.
Once the court determined that John Byng had "failed to do his utmost", it had no discretion over punishment under the Articles of War.
30.
John Byng did petition the King to commute the death sentence.
31.
John Byng is buried in the Byng Mausoleum in All Saints' Church in Southill, Bedfordshire, built for the burial of his father.
32.
John Byng's execution was satirised by Voltaire in his novel Candide.
33.
John Byng was the last of his rank to be executed in this fashion and, 22 years after the event, the Articles of War were amended to allow "such other punishment as the nature and degree of the offence shall be found to deserve" as an alternative to capital punishment.
34.
In 2007, some descendants of the John Byng family petitioned the government for a posthumous pardon.
35.
John Byng's execution has been called "the worst legalistic crime in the nation's annals".
36.
Admiral John Byng was buried in the John Byng vault at the Church of All Saints in Southill, Bedfordshire.