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George Byng Viscount Torrington

George Byng Viscount Torrington, (1663-1733), English admiral, was born at Wrotham, Kent. His father, John Byng, was compelled by pecuniary losses to sell his property and his son entered the navy as a king's letter boy in 1678. He served in a ship stationed at Tangier, and for a time left the navy to enter one of the regiments of the garrison, but in 1683 he returned to the navy as lieutenant, and went to the East Indies in the following year.

During the year 1688, he had an active share in bringing the fleet over to the prince of Orange, and by the success of the revolution his fortune was made. In 1702 he was appointed to the command of the "Nassau," and was at the taking and burning of the French fleet at Vigo, and the next year he was made rear-admiral of the red. In 1704 he served in the Mediterranean under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, and reduced Gibraltar. He was in the battle of Malaga, and for his gallantry received the honour of knighthood. In 1708 as admiral of the blue he commanded the squadron which baffled the attempt of the Old Pretender to land in Scotland.

In 1718 he commanded the fleet which defeated the Spaniards off Cape Passaro and compelled them to withdraw from their invasion of Sicily. This commission he executed so well that the king made him a handsome present and sent him full powers to negotiate with the princes and states of Italy. Byng procured for the emperor's troops free access into the fortresses which still held out in Sicily, sailed afterwards to Malta, and brought out the Sicilian galleys and a ship belonging to the Turkey Company.

By his advice and assistance the Germans retook the city of Messina in 1719, and destroyed the ships which lay in the basin - an achievement which completed the ruin of the naval power of Spain. It was not a mere accident that, among all the officers who came to the head of the profession, from the conclusion of the Dutch wars, excellent as many of them were, there was not one who, as a commander of fleets, could be said to rise above mediocrity; and to break through the abuse of the system of fighting in line, it was requisite that some such man should arise. The fact is that the whole mind of the profession was cramped and confined by the prevalence of this abuse. There was, indeed, a fine officer, who might at first sight be considered an exception to this remark, George Byng (Lord Torrington); but though he held quite the highest rank in the period under review, he was not - perhaps he had not the opportunity to become - a real exception. His peerage was well merited by successful and distinguished services as a subordinate officer, as second in command, and as ambassador.

George Byng annihilated the Spanish fleet in 1718; but the last-named action, fought off Cape Passaro, which was the only one of his services to place him in a high rank, has never, as a matter of fact, ranked high. It was a victory over a fleet inferior in strength, and which made a poor resistance. It was politically justifiable, as the Spaniards had full warning, and it was useful to England inasmuch as it crippled Spain for future wars ; but the ease with which it was won has somewhat detracted from Byng's merit. His method of fighting must, however, be noticed.

To his conduct it was entirely owing that Sicily was subdued and the king of Spain forced to accept the terms prescribed him by the quadruple alliance. On his return to England in 1721 he was made rear-admiral of Great Britain, a member of the privy council, Baron Byng of Southill, in the county of Bedford and Viscount Torrington in Devonshire. He was also made one of the Knights Companions of the Bath upon the revival of that order in 1725. In 1727 George II on his accession made him first lord of the admiralty, and his administration was distinguished by the establishment of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth. He died on the 17th of January 1733, and was buried at Southill, in Bedfordshire. Two of his eleven sons, Pattee (1699-1747) and George (1701-1750), became respectively the 2nd and 3rd viscounts. The title is still held by the descendants of the latter.