Charles Wager - First Lord of The Admiralty

First Lord of The Admiralty

When Lord Torrington died in January 1733, Under-Secretary Delafaye reported to a colleague: “Every body looks upon Sir Charles Wager as the person who will now be at the head of the affairs of the navy; as indeed I may say he has been for some time”. It seems that Wager's administrative knowledge and talent did matter. The official appointment as first lord was dated 21 June 1733. He was also nominated and elected MP for Westminster in 1734. Besides administrative capacity, Wager brought some important assets to the office. His character as a trusted senior admiral tended to subdue the incipient factions of the officer corps. An example of his candid professionalism was the strong plea he made to leading ministers in December 1738 that Edward Vernon should be given the West Indies command this in spite of Vernon’s unrelenting opposition to him in parliament. He describe himself as a “Parliament man” to Sir Robert Walpole and in Wager Walpole proved to have a personal friend and a staunchly loyal spokesman in the House of Commons who was well liked, well informed, and widely trusted. It seems that when anyone in government needed an opinion on maritime geography, seaborne commerce or colonial circumstance Wager was asked. Many of his responses, most of them written in his own hand, have survived (Vernon–Wager MSS).