Houston Stewart

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Houston Stewart, (3 August 1791 – 10 December 1875) was a Royal Navy officer and briefly a Liberal Party Member of Parliament. After serving as a junior officer in the Napoleonic Wars, Stewart became commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Benbow in the Mediterranean Fleet and took part in the bombardment of Acre during the Egyptian–Ottoman War. He went on to be Captain-Superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard and then Controller-General of the Coastguard. Stewart served as Third Naval Lord before entering the House of Commons as Liberal Party Member of Parliament MP for Greenwich. Following his election he became Second Naval Lord in the First Derby Ministry. However, he stayed at the Admiralty for only a few weeks and lost his seat in Parliament at the next general election. He became Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard and then second-in-command in the Black Sea taking part in the Siege of Sevastopol and commanding the fleet at the capture of Kinburn during the Crimean War. He went on to be Admiral Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard, then Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station and finally Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth. Early career Born the son of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, 5th Baronet and Catherine Stewart (daughter of Sir William Maxwell, 3rd Baronet), Stewart joined the Royal Navy in February 1805. He was appointed to the fifth-rate HMS Medusa which was engaged to transport Lord Cornwallis, Governor-General of Bengal, to Calcutta. He transferred to the third-rate HMS Revenge and took part in the blockade of Brest and then in the action of 25 September 1806 when four French frigates were captured by a squadron commanded by Commodore Sir Samuel Hood during the Napoleonic Wars. He transferred to the fifth-rate HMS Imperieuse, commanded by Captain Thomas Cochrane, in October 1806 and took part in various raids on the Mediterranean coast of France during 1807 and in the defence of Rosas, which was under siege by the French Army, in November 1808. Still in HMS Imperieuse, he saw action again during the attack on Flushing during the unsuccessful Walcheren Campaign in the Summer of 1809.