George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith (7 January 1746 – 10 March 1823) was a British admiral active throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
Fifth son of the 10th Lord Elphinstone, he was born in Elphinstone Tower, near Stirling, Scotland. Two of his brothers went to sea, and he followed their example by entering the Royal Navy in 1761, in HMS Gosport, then commanded by Captain John Jervis, afterwards Earl Saint Vincent. In 1767, he made a voyage t...
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George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith (7 January 1746 – 10 March 1823) was a British admiral active throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
Fifth son of the 10th Lord Elphinstone, he was born in Elphinstone Tower, near Stirling, Scotland. Two of his brothers went to sea, and he followed their example by entering the Royal Navy in 1761, in HMS Gosport, then commanded by Captain John Jervis, afterwards Earl Saint Vincent. In 1767, he made a voyage to the East Indies in the British East India Company's service, and put £2000 lent him by an uncle to such good purpose in a private trading venture that he laid the foundation of a handsome fortune. He became lieutenant in 1770, commander in 1772, and post captain in 1775.
During the war in America he was employed against the privateers, and with a naval brigade at the occupation of Charleston, South Carolina. In January 1781, when in command of the 50-gun HMS Warwick, he captured a Dutch 50-gun ship which had beaten off a British vessel of...
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