Born in Southampton, Hampshire, he joined the British navy at the age of 10 and saw his first action in the Adriatic Sea.

Yeo joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman aboard Windsor Castle at the age of 10, thanks to his patron, Admiral Phillips Crosby.

[6] The vessel was deployed to the West Indies, where Yeo contracted Yellow fever and was ordered home to England to convalesce in 1798.

Lieutenant Yeo led fifty men ashore to attack a shore battery that was firing on the frigate.

Confiance transported Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford to Lisbon to negotiate an alliance with Britain.

Yeo was sent to Canada in 1813 aboard Woolwich to command the British naval forces in the Great Lakes.

[6] Yeo's use of his small navy was always determined and skillful, but he was hampered by a lack of cooperation from the British army.

The commander of these forces, Sir George Prevost, failed to follow up key advances made by Yeo at Sackett's Harbour and elsewhere that might have resulted in major British victories.

Yeo captured Oswego, New York and then blockaded Sacketts Harbour on 6 May 1814, when reinforced by two frigates built on Point Frederick.

[6] After the British-American War, Yeo held important commands on the West African and Caribbean stations, but saw no further action.

A plaque erected by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada at the Royal Military College of Canada states "Born in Southampton, England, Yeo entered the British Navy, served throughout the Napoleonic Wars and won rapid promotion by his ability.

Yeo successfully blockaded the American fleet in Sackett's Harbour for some months and subsequently commanded the naval forces at the capture of Oswego in 1814.

Yeo was one of the actual historical officers on whom C. S. Forester modeled his fictional naval hero Horatio Hornblower.