BYNG, George (1663—1733), Viscount Torrington, a distinguished English admiral, was born at Wrotham, Kent, and at the age of fifteen went to sea as a volunteer. After being several times advanced, he was in 1702 raised to the command of the “Nassau,” a third rate, and was at the taking and burning of the French fleet at Vigo; and the next year he was made rear-admiral of the red. In 1704 he served in the grand fleet sent to the Mediterranean, under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, as rear-admiral of the red, and reduced Gibraltar. He was in the battle of Malaga, which followed soon afterwards, and for his gallantry in that action received the honour of kinghthood. Iu 1718 he was made admiral and commander-in-chief of the fleet, and was sent with a squadron into the Mediterranean for the protection of Italy. This commission he executed so well that the king made him a handsome present, and sent him full powers to negotiate with the princes and states of Italy, as there should be occasion. He procured the emperor’s troops free access into the fortresses which still held out in Sicily, sailed afterwards to Malta, and brought out the Sicilian galleys, and a ship belonging to the Turkey Company. By his advice and assistance the Germans retook the city of Messina in 1719, and destroyed the ships which lay in the basin—an achievement which completed the ruin of the naval power of Spain. The Spaniards being much distressed offered to quit Sicily; but the admiral declared that the troops should never be suffered to depart from the island till the king of Spain had acceded to the quadruple alliance, and to his conduct it was entirely owing that Sicily was subdued, and the king forced to accept the terms prescribed him by the alliance. On his return to England he was made ...rear-admiral of Great Britain, a member of the privy council, Baron Byng of Southill, in the county of Bedford, and Viscount Torrington in Devonshire. He was also made one of the Knights Companions of the Bath upon the revival of that order in 1725. In 1727 George IL, on his accession to the crown, placed him at the head of naval affairs as first lord of the Admiralty. He died January 15, 1733, in the seventieth year of his age, and was buried at Southill, in Bedfordshire.
BYNG, The Hon. John (1704-1757), British admiral, fourth son of the subject of the preceding notice, entered the navy at an early age, became captain in 1727, and in 1745 was made rear-admiral of the red. In the year 1755 the British Government received intimation that the French were fitting out a naval expedition in Toulon, and it behoved them to attend to the defences of Gibraltar and Minorca. Nothing, however, was done until the intentions of the French were too apparent, and Byng was then entrusted with ten miserably equipped ships of war, and set sail from Spithead on the 7th April 1756. He put in at Gibraltar to receive stores, and there learnt that the French had made good their descent upon Minorca. On the 19 th May he came in sight of St Philip’s, still held by the British, but failed to establish communications with the governor. On the following day he engaged with the French fleet, which was inferior in number of vessels, but vastly superior in armament and equipment. There seems no doubt that the division under Byng’s charge did not second with sufficient eagerness the bold attack made by Admiral West. The action was indecisive, and next morning Byng called a military council, and it was resolved that, under the circumstances, it was hopeless to attempt anything further, and that Minorca must be left to its fate. The fleet returned to Gibraltar. The indignation of the English at the transaction was intense, and the Government took advantage of it to avert from themselves the charge of incapacity. Byng was at once superseded and brought home under arrest. A court-martial on his conduct sat during December 1756 and January 1757, and found that the admiral had not done his utmost to relieve St Philip’s, or to defeat the French fleet, though they fully acquitted him of cowardice or treachery. The only punishment open to them to inflict was that of death, and they passed their sentence with the utmost reluctance, coupling it with an earnest recommendation to mercy. No attention was paid to this or to other attempts to mitigate what was felt to be an unduly severe punishment for mere incapacity.
The unfortunate admiral was shot on the 14 th March 1757.
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