On this day, March 14th, in 1757, Admiral John Byng was executed by firing squad on the quarterdeck of HMS Monarch in the Solent for the crime of failing to “do his utmost against the enemy.” Byng was the first and last admiral ever executed by the Royal Navy.
Near the onset of the Seven Years’ War, Admiral Byng was dispatched from Gibraltar with a fleet of ten ships and 700 soldiers to relieve the British garrison on the island of Minorca. Before sailing, Byng expressed his doubts about the success of the mission. He told his superiors he had neither the ships nor men for the mission, but he was refused reinforcements. It is often said that he sailed expecting to fail.
And fail he did. When his squadron arrived, the French had already landed 15,000 troops on the island. Byng’s squadron fought an inconclusive battle with a French fleet off the Minorca coast. Admiral Byng then decided to return to Gibraltar to repair damage to his ships. The French fleet sailed away relatively unmolested.
Admiral Byng suffered the perhaps fatal misfortune of catching the attention of the king. King George II said flatly: “This man will not fight!” Byng was recalled from Gibraltar to face a court-martial. The court acquitted him of charges of personal cowardice but found hi guilt of failing to “do his utmost,” which was punishable by death. The court’s unanimous recommendation for mercy was ignored and George II chose not to pardon the Admiral.
Admiral Byng’s execution was controversial in his time and remains so to this day. His supporters, then and now, argue that Byng was a convenient scapegoat to cover the government’s lack of preparation and unwillingness to provide sufficient resources to the admiral.
Byng’s family considered his execution to be judicial murder. The admiral was buried in the Byng family vault at the Church of All Saints in Southill, Bedfordshire. His epitaph expresses his family’s views bluntly:
To the perpetual Disgrace
of PUBLICK JUSTICE
The Honble. JOHN BYNG Esqr
Admiral of the Blue
Fell a MARTYR to
POLITICAL PERSECUTION
March 14th in the year 1757 when
BRAVERY and LOYALTY
were Insufficient Securities
For the
Life and Honour
of a
NAVAL OFFICER
More than 250 years after his death, his family has continued to lobby the Ministry of Defense (MoD) for a pardon for the admiral. As recently as 2014, the request was denied by the MoD.
Others have suggested that Byng was too cautious and defeatist for an admiral in command of a squadron in the Royal Navy. The son a British admiral himself, his detractors have suggested that Byng rose through his connections and was a poor role model for a wartime commander. Voltaire writes of the execution of a British admiral in his satirical novel Candide, where he wrote of Britain — ‘in this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, in order to encourage the others.’
I live about 5 miles from Southill, and in 2007 I was asked to give the eulogy at the church service to mark the 250th anniversary of the execution. I had the entire family arrayed in front of me, many of whom are convinced he was innocent and should be pardoned, whereas I believe the opposite on both counts. One of the trickier speeches I’ve had to write and deliver in my life!
Byng’s mission was widely appraised as a disaster-in-waiting prior to his setting sail with his fleet.
“The son a British admiral himself, his detractors have suggested that Byng rose through his connections and was a poor role model for a wartime commander. ”
Begs the question, why did they send him? Even in those days there were plenty desks to command although probably fewer than today.