Bust of Admiral Vernon (1684-1757)

As a lieutenant Vernon had served in Sir Cloudisley Shovell's flagship at the Battle of Malaga, 1704, and at the taking of Barcelona in the following year. In 1722 he was returned to Parliament where in the 1730s he was a powerful advocate for war with Spain. When the War of Jenkin's Ear against the Spanish broke out in 1739, he undertook to capture their base at Porto Bello, Panama 'with only six ships'. This he did in a famous landing against its Iron Castle since he Spaniards had neglected preparations for its defence. A subsequent assault in Catagena, Columbia, failed through poor collaboration with the army contingent. Later he commanded the fleet in the North Sea during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. Shortly afterwards he quarrelled with the Admiralty over some pamphlets of which he was the alleged author and his name was struck off the flag officers' list. Vernon is however best remembered because in 1740 he ordered his men's rum ration to be served diluted with water, for health reasons. This 'grog' - Vernon's nickname- rapidly became the standard way of serving the naval rum ration until it was abolished in 1970.

The flared pedestal bears the inscription ' Admiral Vernon / Quid virtus & quid Sapientia possit / Utile proposuit nobis Exemplar'.
Louis-Francois Roubilliac

Original size: 749 mm x 483 mm