Rear-Admiral Sir Home Riggs Popham, KCB, KCH (12 October 1762 – 20 September 1820), was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

[1] In 1769 Joseph Popham was forced to resign as consul after a personal dispute with the Moroccan Emperor regarding piracy against English merchantmen.

The British Government subsequently blamed Joseph Popham for the disagreement, with Gibraltar Governor Edward Cornwallis describing him as an "honest well meaning man" who had met with "little success" and was henceforth "an improper person to serve His Majesty [as consul].

Joseph sought further diplomatic postings but was successful only in securing an annual government pension of £200 which was insufficient to cover debts incurred during his Moroccan consulship.

The family was forced to rely on income earned by Home's brothers, particularly Stephen Popham who was then a successful barrister.

In April 1778 he abandoned his studies and enlisted in the Royal Navy as an able seaman aboard Thompson's newly built frigate HMS Hyaena.

[1] Popham served with the flag of Admiral George Rodney till the end of the American War of Independence.

[3] Between 1787 and 1793 he was engaged in a series of commercial ventures in the Eastern Sea, sailing, first for the Imperial Ostend Company, and then in Etrusco, a vessel that he purchased and in part loaded himself.

[3] In the spring of 1798 the Admiralty created the Sea Fencibles, a force of coastal militia, following a plan by Popham.

[4] On 8 May 1798 Home Popham led an expedition to Ostend to destroy the sluice gates of the Bruge canal.

[5] It was during this period perhaps in captivity, before being returned home that Popham began work on a standard signal instructions handbook for the Royal Navy.

Popham was under the direction of Admiral Archibald Dickson when he devised the two or three flag hoist, in which each sign was a number, and each combination a different state of readiness.

[10] Commissioned by prime minister Pitt in 1805 to study the military plans being proposed by Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda to the British Government, Popham then persuaded the authorities that, as the Spanish Colonies were discontented, it would be easy to promote a rising in Buenos Aires.

[4] After co-operating with Sir David Baird in recovering the Cape of Good Hope Station from the Dutch in January 1806,[11] he led the British invasions of the Río de la Plata on Buenos Aires by General Beresford's brigade of 1500 men with his squadron.

Over 100 men died from sickness leaving 1400 weakened soldiers when they arrived; but the Spanish colonists, though discontented, were not disposed to accept British rule.

[12] In spite of his embarrassment the City of London presented him with a sword of honour for his endeavours to "open new markets", and the sentence did him limited harm.

But Popham's original system offered the Admiralty a huge variety of signals to be sent interpolated by tables with places marked around the world.

[3] He was buried on September 25 in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels at Sunninghill, Berkshire, close to his home, Titness Park.