James Gordon (Royal Navy officer) James Gordon (Royal Navy officer) Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Alexander Gordon, GCB (6 October 1782 – 8 January 1869) was a Royal Navy officer. As a volunteer, he fought at the Battle of Groix, at the Battle of the Glorious First of June and at the Battle of Cape St Vincent during the French Revolutionary Wars and then, as a midshipman, served under Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile. Gordon became commanding officer of the 28-gun frigate which took part of a hard-fought action between three British ships and the combined forces of a
Sidney Smith (Royal Navy officer) the Royal Society. In 1838 he was promoted to GCB in the Coronation Honours. Sidney Smith (Royal Navy officer) Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, GCB, GCTE, KmstkSO, FRS (21 June 1764 – 26 May 1840) was a British naval officer. Serving in the American and French revolutionary wars, he later rose to the rank of admiral. Napoleon Bonaparte, reminiscing later in his life, said of him: "That man made me miss my destiny". Sidney Smith, as he always called himself, was born into a military and naval family with connections to the Pitt family. He was born at Westminster, the