Mundy, George, Admiral Sir, 1777-1861.

This sub-collection consists of two notebooks from the period 1793-1835. These mainly relate to Mundy's service as a young officer in the Mediterranean during the French Revolutionary Wars, and later his command of HMS HYDRA (1797) during the Peninsular War.

Administrative / biographical background
George Mundy was the third son of Edward Miller Mundy, for many years a Member of Parliament for Derbyshire, and Francis Meynell. He was born in 1777 and entered the Royal Naval Academy in 1789. As a midshipman he served on HMS BLANCHE (1786), HMS PEGASUS (1779), HMS VICTORY (1765) and HMS JUNO (1780). He was on board the JUNO under Captain Samuel Hood when she escaped from the inner harbour at Toulon under fire from French republican forces in 1794. He then served on HMS L’AIGLE (captured 1782) during the invasion of Corsica and went onshore to participate in the sieges of Bastia and Calvi. As a lieutenant he was on HMS BLENHEIM (1761) at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797 and HMS GOLIATH (1781) at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. For his services at the Nile he was nominated commander of the brig HMS TRANSFER (captured 1796) and was employed on hazardous service off Cadiz and in the Mediterranean until 1800. Mundy was in command of the HMS CARYSFORT (1766) and then HMS HYDRA (1797) during the Napoleonic Wars. While on the HYDRA for eight years, he had notable success in capturing enemy warships, including the French brig LE FURET off Cadiz lighthouse. During the Peninsular War the HYDRA took part in the attack on the fortified harbour of Begu and the blockade of Barcelona in support of patriots on the Catalonian coast. Mundy’s zeal and energy gained acknowledgement from Lord Collingwood, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. Mundy was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral and nominated a CB while in command of HMS AJAX (1809) in 1815. In the period 1825-1830 he was appointed to command of the Royal yachts PRINCE REGENT (1820) and then ROYAL GEORGE (1817). He represented Boroughbridge in Parliament in the period 1819-1831. He was nominated a KCB in 1837, promoted to vice-admiral in 1841 and then admiral in 1849. He died in London in 1861. His service record can be found under the reference ADM 196/68/308 at The National Archives.

Record Details

Item reference: MDY/1; MSS/85/015 MS1985/015
Catalogue Section: Personal collections
Level: SUB-COLLECTION
Date made: 1793-1835
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
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