William Johnstone Hope - Retirement

Retirement

In 1804, at the end of the Peace of Amiens, Hope briefly took command of HMS Atlas, but it soon became clear that his health was failing and he could no longer maintain an active naval career. Retiring from the navy on half-pay, Hope was an invalid from 1804 until 1807, when a return to health permitted him to take a post as a Lord of the Admiralty. Hope changed positions several times in this role, but he held onto the position for twenty years as a political favourite, a status maintained by being almost totally politically inactive. In 1812, Hope was advanced to rear-admiral and in January 1815 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on the reorganisation of the order, and was invested later in the year.

From 1813, Hope served as commander-in-chief at Leith until 1818 and in 1819 he was again promoted, this time to vice-admiral. In 1820 he was recalled to the Admiralty and remained there for seven years without participating in any of the important decisions and innovations of the period. He remarried in 1821 to Maria, Countess of Athlone and in 1825 was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). In 1827, in the chaotic aftermath of the collapse of Lord Liverpool's government, Hope was retired in favour of Sir George Cockburn and given the favourable role of treasurer and later commissioner of the Royal Naval Hospital in Greenwich. Despite his conflicts with Prince William 45 years earlier, when King William IV ascended the throne in 1830, he made Hope a privy councillor, before Hope entered retirement later in the year. Hope died in May 1831, a few months after giving up his seat in Parliament. Although he died in Bath, his remains were returned to the family crypt at Johnstone Church, Johnstone, Dumfriesshire.