Originally exercised by a single person, the office of Lord High Admiral was from the 18th century onward almost invariably put " in commission " and exercised by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, who sat on the Board of Admiralty.

The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom was vested in the Sovereign from 1964 to 2011.

Flag of the Lord High Admiral

The office of Admiral of England ( or Lord Admiral and later Lord High Admiral ) was created around 1400, though there were before this Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas.

Operational control of the Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State.

In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission and control of the Royal Navy passed to a committee in the form of the Board of Admiralty.

The office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709, after which the office was almost permanently in commission ( the last Lord High Admiral being the future King William IV in the early 19th century ).

When the office of Lord High Admiral was in commission, as it was for most of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries until it reverted to the Crown, it was exercised by a Board of Admiralty, officially known as the Commissioners for Exercising the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, & c. ( alternatively of England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland depending on the period ).

* Lord High Admiral of Scotland

British navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1773 and 1777 ; Cook named the islands the ' Hervey Islands ' to honour a British Lord of the Admiralty ; Half a century later the Baltic German Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern published the Atlas de l ' Ocean Pacifique, in which he renamed the islands the Cook Islands to honour Cook.

The first ships to bear the formal designation " torpedo boat destroyer " ( TBD ) were the Daring class of two ships and Havock class of two ships of the Royal Navy, developed in 1892 under the newly appointed Third Sea Lord Rear Admiral " Jackie " Fisher.

When Jellicoe was promoted to First Sea Lord in 1916, Beatty succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet and received promotion to the acting rank of Admiral at the age of 45 on 27 November.

* 1799 – Philip Affleck, British Admiral and First Lord of the Admiralty ( b. 1726 )

Lord and Lady Mountbatten with Muhammad Ali JinnahNotwithstanding the self-promotion of his own part in Indian independence — notably in the television series The Life and Times of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten of Burma, produced by his son-in-law Lord Brabourne and Dominique Lapierre, and Larry Collins's Freedom at Midnight ( of which he was the main quoted source ) — his record is seen as very mixed ; one common view is that he hastened the independence process unduly and recklessly, foreseeing vast disruption and loss of life and not wanting this to occur on the British watch, but thereby actually causing it to occur, especially in Punjab and Bengal.

Just shy of 39, the youngest Admiral in the Royal Navy ( except for Royal family members ) since Horatio Nelson.

Only a few weeks later the British fleet under Admiral Horatio Nelson unexpectedly destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile ( 1 – 3 August 1798 ).

* 1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.

The Duchess of Bronte, Frances Nisbet ( 1761 − 1831 ), is best known as the wife of British hero 1st Viscount Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, of Battle of Trafalgar fame.

* April 2 – First Battle of Copenhagen: The British fleet under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, along with Admiral Horatio Nelson, attack Copenhagen ; the Armed Neutrality of the North is dissolved.

* October 21 – Napoleonic Wars – Battle of Trafalgar: British naval fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain ; however, Admiral Nelson is fatally shot.

Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson | Horatio Lord Nelson, by Lemuel Francis Abbott

Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson decided on a total blockade, and in 1800 the French garrison surrendered.

The town was visited in 1802 by Admiral Horatio Nelson, who knew the importance of the area's woodland in providing timber for the British Navy and approved a Naval Temple built in his honour on the nearby Kymin Hill.

During visits by his brother Admiral Horatio Nelson, Lady Hamilton is reputed to have danced on a table in what is now the head of house's study.

The British fleet of Admiral Horatio Nelson blockaded Toulon, and almost all maritime commerce was stopped, causing hardship and poverty.

During the Napoleonic Wars, from 1803 until 1805 a British fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson blockaded Toulon.

Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood ( 1748 – 1810 ) born in Newcastle upon Tyne ; admiral of the Royal Navy, a partner with Horatio Nelson in many sea victories, and as Nelson's successor after Trafalgar, completing the destruction of the Napoleonic fleet.

She was the mistress of Admiral Horatio Nelson.

There are many parallels between Hornblower and real naval officers of the period, notably Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and also Sir George Cockburn, Lord Cochrane, Sir James Gordon, Sir William Hoste and many others.

During all the Napoleonic Wars Admiral Horatio Nelson used the archipelago of La Maddalena as a base for his fleet in actions against the French.

In 1801, under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson, the British fleet bombarded Copenhagen during the Battle of Copenhagen, destroying most of the university's buildings.

* The brig HMS Badger, was the future Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's first command as a young lieutenant.

Even the change of government due to the French Revolution seemed to intensify rather than diminish the rivalry, and the Napoleonic Wars included a series of legendary naval battles, culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, by which Admiral Horatio Nelson broke the power of the French and Spanish fleets, but lost his own life in so doing.

John Taylor Gilman, Oliver Peabody, Col. Gilman Leavitt and others, was boarded by brigs belonging to the Royal Navy under command of Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Both commanders would have seen the parallels of Macdonough's anchorage on Lake Champlain to that of the French under Vice Admiral Francois-Paul Brueys, opposing British Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, at the Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay on 1 August 1798.

The casualty list includes Captain Westcott, five lieutenants and ten junior officers among the dead and Admiral Nelson, Captains Saumarez, Ball and Darby and six lieutenants wounded.

* 1803 June – Admiral Nelson arrived in Gibraltar as Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean.

After naval studies in England between 1871 and 1878, Togo's role as Chief Admiral of the Grand Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Russo-Japanese War made him a legend in Japanese military history, and earned him the nickname ' Nelson of the Orient ' in Britain.

The soothing waters of the hotel's hot spring and the lively social life on Nevis attracted many famous Europeans, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Antigua-based Admiral Nelson, and Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence, ( future William IV of the United Kingdom ), who attended balls and private parties at the Bath Hotel.

* He is also related to the Confederate Generals Fitzhugh Lee, Edmund Jennings Lee, Nelson Pendelton Lee, and Richard L. Page ; and to US Admiral Samuel P. Lee.

* August 1 – Battle of the Nile ( near Abu Qir ): Lord Nelson defeats the French navy under Admiral Brueys ; Nelson himself is wounded in the head.

Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve off the south-west coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar.

Early in 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson commanded the British fleet blockading Toulon.