Michael Culme-Seymour, Third Baronet

Admiral SIR Michael Culme-Seymour, Third Baronet, G.C.B., Royal Navy (13 March, 1836 – 11 October, 1920) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Early Life & Career

Culme-Seymour was born on 13 March 1836 at Northchurch, Berkhamsted. He was the son of Sir John Hobart Seymour, second baronet (1800–1880), who took the additional surname Culme after the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of the Revd Thomas Culme, on 6 March 1841. After attending Harrow School he entered the navy in 1850. He had early experience of active service in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852 and in the Baltic operations of the Russian War in 1854 and then moved to the Black Sea theatre, where he served ashore with the naval brigade at the siege of Sevastopol. He was then appointed to the Calcutta, which would carry the flag of his uncle Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, on the China station. Here he benefited from the excellent education provided by the naval instructor John Knox Laughton. He was promoted lieutenant on 25 May 1857, and served as flag-lieutenant during the Second Opium War. He was engaged at the desperate boat action in Fatshan (Foshan) Creek and the capture of Canton (Guangzhou) and the Peiho (Beihe) forts. As flag-lieutenant he was promoted commander on 6 June 1859, when his uncle's command ended. Between June 1861 and July 1864 he commanded the gun-vessel Wanderer in the Mediterranean. He was promoted captain on 16 December 1865, and married Mary Georgiana Watson (d. 6 March 1912), daughter of Richard Watson MP of Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire, on 16 October 1866. They had three sons and two daughters.

In 1869 Seymour was appointed naval aide-de-camp to the queen. In 1874–6 he served as private secretary to his near neighbour George Ward-Hunt, the first lord of the Admiralty. In 1876 he commanded the ironclad Monarch, and in 1877 moved to the Temeraire. She was part of the squadron that Admiral Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby led up the Dardanelles in 1878. He served as flag-captain to the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, Admiral Sir Alfred Ryder, between 1879 and 1881. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in September 1880. Promoted rear-admiral on 6 May 1882, he was appointed to the particular service squadron in 1885 under Hornby, and was then commander-in-chief on the Pacific station from 1885 to 1887. As a vice-admiral (19 June 1888), he was commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet from 1890 to 1893, and he was promoted to the rank of Admiral on 13 May 1893. This would normally have been the end of his sea-going career. However, in July 1893 he was dispatched to command the Mediterranean Fleet by the first lord of the Admiralty, his close friend and relative by marriage Earl Spencer. He replaced Admiral Sir George Tryon, who had been lost with the Victoria. The appointment was critical: Britain's international position was intimately identified with the Mediterranean Fleet, and any sign of weakness would encourage the newly formed Franco-Russian alliance to challenge British pre-eminence at sea, upon which rested the whole fabric of the empire.

Seymour remained in the Mediterranean until 1897, restoring the morale and good order of the fleet. He also reversed the radical tactical thinking that Tryon had made a feature of his regime, and it is to his command that Andrew Gordon (in The Rules of the Game) attributes a reaffirmation of the signal-driven and over-centralized tactical methods that failed at Jutland. A master of steamship handling and formal evolutions, Seymour selected a staff of future admirals to carry through his counter-reformation, including Francis Bridgeman, John Rushworth Jellicoe, and Hugh Evan-Thomas. Officers who had served in Seymour's fleet held the majority of high commands up to and during the First World War. His impact on the real fighting efficiency of the fleet, particularly gunnery, was less satisfactory. On leaving the Mediterranean he spent the years 1897–1900 as commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, and became principal aide-de-camp to the queen in 1899. He was also awarded the GCB and GCVO during his career, which had benefited from a close family connection with the royal family stretching back to the first baronet. On 25 February, 1901, he was appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to the new King, Edward VII. When he retired, on 13 March 1901, he was awarded the honorary rank of vice-admiral of the United Kingdom, which he held until his death. Seymour maintained a lively and well-informed interest in the service for the rest of his life, not only through the career of his eldest son, also called Sir Michael Culme-Seymour (b. 29 Aug 1867), but also through his many distinguished subordinates, notably Jellicoe, who always looked back on his period under Seymour's command with particular nostalgia. He died at his home, Wadenhoe House, at Oundle in Northamptonshire, on 11 October 1920. His eldest son, the fourth baronet, held important naval commands before his untimely death on 2 April 1925 as a vice-admiral. Culme-Seymour's association with royalty, and especially with the sailor-prince, later George V, had a curious consequence. There was a fairly persistent rumour, quite unfounded, that George, then Prince George, had in 1890 in Malta married Mary, Culme-Seymour's elder daughter. In February 1911, F. Mylius was prosecuted for perpetrating this libel in a republican squib. Culme-Seymour gave evidence in the king's favour, and Mylius was imprisoned for twelve months. Mary (d. 1944), who also gave evidence, as did other members of the family, was in fact legitimately married in 1899 to Vice-Admiral Sir Trevylyan Napier.

A slight, spartan figure with, as an admiral, a white naval beard, Seymour had enormous reserves of physical energy, and continued to win foot races even after his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. He was also a fearsome martinet with a mania for order. Although his career was made by early promotion, secured by his uncle, his determination and force of character were seen to great advantage in helping the service to recover from the Victoria disaster at a time when Britain's international position was threatened.

Bibliography

• "Death of Admiral Sir M. Culme-Seymour" (Obituaries). The Times. Tuesday, 12 October, 1920. Issue 42539, col C, pg. 12.
• Template:BibGordonRules2005

Service Records

• The National Archives. ADM 196/37.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/16.

Naval Offices
Preceded by John K. E. Baird	Senior Officer in Command of the Channel Squadron 1890 – 1893	Succeeded by Henry Fairfax
Preceded by Sir George Tryon	Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean 1893 – 1896	Succeeded by Sir John A. Hopkins