Edward Vernon

Edward Vernon ("Old Grog") (November 12, 1684 – 30 October 1757) was an English naval officer.

Vernon was born in Westminster, England and went to Westminster School.

He joins the Navy in 1700, is promoted to Lieutenant in 1702, and serves on several different ships for the next five years.

He is appointed Captain in 1706, taking command of HMS Rye, part of the fleet of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

With HMS Rye, he narrowly escapes the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 in which Shovell and nearly 2,000 sailors are lost.

In the next ten years, Vernon is on half pay for half of this time.

In May 1728 he takes up parliamentary duties and the case of Robert Jenkins, who is alleged to have had his ear cut off by Spanish coastguards in the Caribbean.

This leads to the War of Jenkin's Ear in 1739, in which Vice Admiral Vernon leads a fleet along with Major General Thomas Wentworth.

Vernon captures Porto Bello, a Spanish colonial possession, as a result of which he wis granted the Freedom of the City of London.

However, Vernon's next campaign against the Spanish, a large-scale assault on Cartagena de Indias in 1741, ends in disaster.

This is the biggest amphibious attack until the Invasion of Normandy in 1944: in Cartagena the British fleet of 186 ships and almost 27,000 men is defeated by a garrison of 3,500 men and 6 ships of the line commanded by the one-eyed, one-armed Spanish admiral Blas de Lezo.

The strategic defense of the colonial port of Cartagena leads to heavy British casualties and eventually a retreat to Jamaica.

Following the disease outbreak and quarrels with Wentworth, Vernon returns to the UK to find he has been elected MP for Ipswich.

However, the news of the Cartagena defeat eventually lead to the collapse of Robert Walpole's government.

Vernon maintains his Naval career for another four years before retiring in 1746.

In an active Parliamentary career, Vernon advocates an improvement in naval procedures; he continues to hold an interest in naval affairs until his death in 1757.

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