Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood

Common card · No. 225243

Admiral of the Red Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (12 December 1724 – 27 January 1816) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action during the War of the Austrian Succession. While in temporary command of Antelope, Hood drove a French ship ashore in Audierne Bay, and captured two privateers in 1757 during the Seven Years' War. He held senior command as Commander-in-Chief, North American Station and then as Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands Station. During the American War of Independence, Hood led the British navy to victory at the Battle of the Mona Passage in April 1782. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, then First Naval Lord and, after briefly returning to the Portsmouth command, became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet during the French Revolutionary Wars. First elected in a famously fierce by-election, he served as Tory Member of Parliament for Westminster from 1784 to 1788 and from 1790 to 1796, being Member for Reigate between...

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