AdmiralSir George Greville WellesleyGCB (2 August 1814 – 6 April 1901) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he took part in the capture of Acre during the Oriental Crisis in 1840 and, as Captain of HMS Cornwallis in the Baltic Fleet, he took part in the Bombardment of Sveaborg in August 1855 during the Crimean War. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station and then Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron but was relieved of the latter post by a court-martial after an incident in which an armoured frigate, which had been under his command at the time, ran aground at Pearl Rock off Gibraltar in July 1871. He was appointed First Naval Lord in November 1877 and in that capacity he secured a considerable increase in naval construction, for example on the Colossus-class battleships, although some of these ships were of doubtful quality.
Promoted to vice admiral on 26 July 1869,[4] Wellesley went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron, hoisting his flag in the armoured frigateHMS Minotaur, in October 1870 but was relieved of that post by a court-martial after an incident in which the armoured frigate HMS Agincourt, which had been under his command at the time, ran aground at Pearl Rock off Gibraltar in July 1871.[2] It was not until the fourth day after the incident that the central battery ironcladHMS Hercules commanded by Captain Lord Gilford, using full engines and hauling on the anchors, managed to pull HMS Agincourt free using two chains.[5] After that Wellesley was made Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station again, this time hoisting his flag in the central battery ironclad HMS Bellerophon, in September 1873.[2]