Henry Blackwood - Rear Admiral

Rear Admiral

On 4 June 1814 Blackwood attained the rank of rear-admiral, and in September he was created a Baronet, of the Navy, for his conduct of the heads of royal families of Europe to England following the defeat of Napoleon. In August 1819 he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, and appointed commander-in-chief of the East Indies Station, nearly suffering a shipwreck in Leander on his way there off the coast of Madeira. He returned from this station in December 1822. He became vice-admiral in May 1825, and from 1827 to 1830 he commanded in chief at the Nore. During this period, he lived at Blackwood House, 6 Cornwall Terrace, Regents Park, London. He died after a short illness, differently stated as typhus or scarlet fever, on 17 December 1832, at Ballyleidy, the seat of his eldest brother, Lord Dufferin and Claneboye.

Blackwood was married three times, and left a large family. Blackwood River, Western Australia, is named in his honour; it was named by Captain (later Admiral Sir) James Stirling, who served under Blackwood as a youth from 1808 to 1810.