Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC[1] (9 January 1735 – 13 March 1823) was a Royal Navy officer and politician.

Jervis' entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by P. K. Crimmin describes his contribution to history: "His importance lies in his being the organiser of victories; the creator of well-equipped, highly efficient fleets; and in training a school of officers as professional, energetic, and devoted to the service as himself.

One biographer, Jedediah Tucker, notes that as the approach was so critical, both Wolfe and the subsequently famous James Cook boarded Porcupine to ensure the success of the mission.

In later years, he commented: "Had the young Captain Jervis not performed such a complete survey of this port then the Earl St Vincent would not have been able to effect such a thorough blockade of it.

[citation needed] For the first few years of the war, the French supplied arms, funding, and military advice on an informal and limited basis to the newly emerging nation of America.

[citation needed] On 19 April 1782 Jervis was with his old friend and travelling companion when a ship in Admiral Barrington's squadron sighted a French convoy leaving Brest.

[60][64] Jervis began his political career in earnest and voted for Pitt's parliamentary reforms and against Charles James Fox and his East India Bill.

[citation needed] On 24 September 1787 Jervis was promoted rear-admiral of the blue[66][67][68] and hoisted his flag in the 74-gun Carnatic for several months during the tensions arising from the Prussian invasion of the Netherlands.

[citation needed] Jervis began a close blockade of Toulon and Nelson was assigned the task of aiding the Austrian army along the Italian coast.

The Spanish admiral, José de Córdoba, had taken his ships into the Atlantic to weather a storm and was making his way to Cadiz when the two fleets caught sight of each other at dawn on 14 February 1797.

[120][121] The bad news of the evacuation of the Mediterranean, the capitulation of the Spanish and the Italian city-states and the defeat of the Austrian army, alongside the increasing threat of a French invasion of Britain, had depressed the politicians and general public.

[160] Lady Lavinia Bingham, wife of Earl Spencer, wrote to St Vincent to congratulate him for having provided the necessary tools for Nelson to have achieved the victory he did at the Nile.

[167][168] His reputation as a strict disciplinarian had followed him from the Mediterranean and he immediately issued orders banning officers and captains from sleeping ashore and forbade them from travelling more than three miles from their ship.

"[171] Among other strict regulations introduced were orders that ships were to be repaired where possible at sea and that Ushant was to be the official rendezvous for the Channel fleet rather than the traditional Torbay.

St Vincent wrote to Earl Spencer, commenting "I have ever considered the care of the sick and wounded as one of the first duties of a Commander-in-chief, by sea or land.

[179] In a letter to Sir Evan Nepean, first secretary to the Admiralty, St Vincent described Baird as "the most valuable man in the Navy not excepting the Board itself,"[180] The oncoming winter of 1800–1801 forced the admiral to live ashore at Torre Abbey overlooking Torbay.

"[187] As First Lord St Vincent intended to investigate, discover and remove all of the corruption that he considered plagued the Navy, the Royal Dockyards and their civilian administration.

[189][190] During the peace with France, after the Treaty of Amiens was signed on 27 March 1802, St Vincent ordered the Navy Board to begin an investigation for fraud and corruption in the Royal Dockyards.

The innovation meant that only ten to thirty unskilled men were able to equal the output of 100 skilled blockmakers and the capital cost of the project was recovered in three years.

The earl attempted to disband the Sea Fencibles, claiming that they were needed only to quiet the fears of little old ladies and that good men passed their whole careers without hearing a shot fired.

Despite St Vincent having declared both publicly and privately that officers would be promoted or given position commensurate with their achievements and not based on their political or social influence, the letters continued to flow to the Admiralty.

[citation needed] The ways in which St Vincent chose to communicate the rejections often depended on the number of letters, the individual concerned, or the demands made by their respective well wishers.

"[208] Famously, when Commander Lord Cochrane captured the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo in the 14-gun sloop HMS Speedy a promotion was the usual reward for such a feat of skill and seamanship.

[citation needed] Unfortunately the commander thought that the First Lord had deliberately withheld the promotion due to an unforeseen grudge; he held this opinion for the rest of his life.

The detailed investigation into corruption that St Vincent began caused him to become extremely unpopular, as many influential men were involved in the various money-making schemes perpetrated.

[citation needed] St Vincent had thereby made an enemy of Pitt, who used the naval reform and its unpopularity to attack the First Lord and the Addington administration.

[citation needed] On 14 May 1806, John Jeffery, one of the Members of Parliament for Poole, opened a parliamentary debate condemning St Vincent for "unprecedented neglect in building and repairing of ships while his Lordship presided at the Board of Admiralty and with delivering up the navy to his successor in a far less efficient state than that in which he received it".

"[224] In a letter dated 18 October 1806 to Viscount Howick, then the First Lord, St Vincent wrote "If you will, my good Lord, bring a bill into Parliament to disqualify any Officer under the rank of Rear-Admiral to sit in the House of Commons, the Navy may be preserved; but while a little, drunken, worthless jackanapes is permitted to hold the seditious language he has done, in the presence of Flag-officers of rank, you will require a man of greater health and vigour than I possess to command your fleets.

[232] St Vincent spoke in defence of Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore's retreat through Spain and Portugal and condemned the government and army commanders for failure to support him thoroughly.

[248] HMS Jervis Bay, an armed merchant cruiser that was sunk in heroic circumstances by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer in 1940, was indirectly named after him.