Thompson, Sir Charles, 1st Baronet, Vice-Admiral, c.1740-1799.

The official correspondence of Vice-Admiral Thompson consists of letter and order books, 1772 to 1799, and loose letters and orders received, 1787 to 1799. The collection also has service documents and a number of miscellaneous papers and notes that he collected, 1746 to 1799. These include extracts of logs of the ships under his command, including HMS ULYSSES, 1794, HMS CAPTAIN, 1798, HMS TRITON, 1799, HMS ATALANTE, 1799, HMS DRAGON, 1799, and HMS SEAHORSE, 1799; notes on the wreck of HMS IPSWICH, 1746, and drafts of letters to Earl St. Vincent. Two of the items relate to his eldest son Lieutenant Norborne Charles Thompson, 2nd Baronet (1785-1826), and there is an index of the papers compiled by his great-grandson Admiral Francis George Kirby (1854-1951).

Administrative / biographical background
Thompson entered the Navy in 1755 and became a lieutenant in 1760. During the Seven Years War he served on the Channel, Mediterranean and North American Stations. He was promoted to captain in 1772 and appointed to HMS CHATHAM and then to HMS CRESCENT, which he brought home from the West Indies in 1774. After further service in the West Indies, he was moved in 1780, into HMS ALCIDE. Between 1787 and 1790 he commanded HMS EDGAR, guardship at Portsmouth. His next appointments were to HMS ELEPHANT during the mobilization of 1790 and in 1793 to HMS VENGEANCE, which he took to the West Indies. Thompson was promoted to rear-admiral in April 1795 and to vice-admiral in June 1795. In 1796, with his flag in HMS LONDON, he commanded a detached squadron in the Channel. He was second-in-command at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, 1797, for which he was made a baronet, remaining with the fleet until removed at the insistence of St. Vincent, because of his censure of the execution of four mutineers on a Sunday. He commanded the fleet off Brest during 1798 but his health failed and he died shortly after striking his flag early in 1799. Thompson was Member of Parliament for Monmouth, 1796 to 1799.