Allegiance United Kingdom Service/branch Royal Navy Died November 14, 1896 | Name George Richards Rank Admiral | |
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Born 13 January 1820
Anthony, Cornwall ( 1820-01-13 ) Commands held HMS Plumper
HMS Hecate
Hydrographer of the Navy Awards Royal Society, Order of the Bath | ||
Admiral Sir George Henry Richards (13 January 1820 – 14 November 1896) was Hydrographer to the British Admiralty from 1864 to 1874.
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Early life
Richards was born in Antony, Cornwall, the son of Captain G. S. Richards, and joined the navy in 1832.
Opium War and promotion to captain
He served in the First Opium War against China, in South America, the Falkland Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Promoted to captain in 1854, from 1857 to 1864 he was in command of the two survey ships HMS Plumper and HMS Hecate.
Survey work in Canada
He was the second British commissioner to the San Juan Islands Boundary Commission and a hydrographer on the coast of British Columbia in 1857-62. He is responsible for the selection and designation of dozens of placenames along the British Columbia coast. In the Vancouver area, for example, he named False Creek. In 1859, after his engineer Francis Brockton found a vein of coal, he named Brockton Point and the area of Coal Harbour. In 1860, he named Mount Garibaldi after Giuseppe Garibaldi. Other landmarks in the area named by him are the Britannia Range, and Brunswick Mountain and many features in the Howe Sound, Sunshine Coast, and Jervis Inlet areas. In 1864 he was appointed Hydrographer and held that position until 1874 when he retired.
Later life
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1866 He was knighted in 1877, received the KCB in 1881 and became an Admiral in 1884. He died in Bath, Somerset aged 76.
A portrait of him by Stephen Pearce, dated 1865, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.