Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/200

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ranean when the Russian war broke out in 1854. He had thus the chief naval command of the operations during the summer and autumn of that year, including the transport of the army to the Crimea, the support of the allies in the battle of the Alma, and the engagement with the sea-forts of Sebastopol on 17 Oct. Dundas's conduct with reference to this bombardment has been much criticised; and many writers, following the ‘Times’ correspondent, have repeated the current gossip of the camp, circulated in ignorance of the many details which cramp and control a commanding officer (cf. Kinglake, Invasion of the Crimea, iii. 386 et seq. and 411). At the same time, it is difficult not to believe that Dundas, though a most estimable gentleman, brave and chivalrous, was old both in years and constitution, and was wanting in the energy which the occasion demanded. In January 1855, having completed the usual term of command, he was succeeded by his second, Sir Edmund Lyons, afterwards Lord Lyons [q. v.], and returned to England. On 5 July of the same year he was nominated a G.C.B., and his services were acknowledged by our allies with the grand cross of the Legion of Honour and the Medjidie of the first class. He attained the rank of admiral on 8 Dec. 1857, but had no further service, and died 3 Oct. 1862. His first wife died in April 1846, and in August 1847 he married Lady Emily Moreton, daughter of the first Earl of Ducie, and younger sister of Lady Charlotte Moreton, who had married in 1834 Admiral Berkeley, afterwards Lord Fitzhardinge, and for many years a lord of the admiralty. By his first wife he had a life interest in large estates in Flintshire and Berkshire, which at his death passed to his grandson, Mr. Charles Amesbury Deans-Dundas. On the passing of the Reform Bill he was elected member for Greenwich, and represented that borough in several subsequent parliaments.

[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. (supplement, pt. i.), p. 265; Gent. Mag. (1862, vol. ii.), new ser. xiii. 782; Annual Register (1862), civ. 348.]

J. K. L.

DUNDAS, Sir RICHARD SAUNDERS (1802–1861), vice-admiral, second son of Robert Saunders Dundas, second viscount Melville [q. v.], and of Anne, grand-niece and coheiress of Admiral Sir Charles Saunders [q. v.], was born on 11 April 1802, received his early education at Harrow, was entered at the Royal Naval College in 1815, and on 15 June 1817 as a volunteer on board the Ganymede frigate, under the Hon. Robert Cavendish Spencer, in the Mediterranean. As the son of the first lord of the admiralty, his promotions were as rapid as the rules of the service permitted. On 18 June 1821 he was made lieutenant, was made commander on 23 June 1823, and captain on 17 July 1824, during all which time he was continuously employed, for the most part on the Mediterranean and North American stations. In September 1825 he was appointed to the Volage frigate, in which he went out to the East Indies and New South Wales, where he was transferred to the Warspite, and returned to England in October 1827. For the next three years he was private secretary to his father, then first lord of the admiralty; in November 1830 commissioned the Belvidera frigate, which he commanded for three years in the Mediterranean, and in September 1837 was appointed to the Melville of 72 guns. In her he went out to China, and participated in the operations of the first Chinese war, being specially mentioned for his conduct at the capture of Ty-cock-tow on 7 Jan. 1841 and of the Bogue forts 26 Feb. For these services he was nominated a C.B. on 29 June. In the end of 1841 he returned to England. In 1845 he was private secretary to the Earl of Haddington, first lord of the admiralty, and in 1853 was appointed a junior lord of the admiralty under Sir James Graham. On 4 July 1853 he attained the rank of rear-admiral, and in February 1855 was appointed commander-in-chief of the fleet in the Baltic, where no active operations were carried on excepting the bombardment of Sveaborg, 9–11 Aug., the effect of which was much exaggerated in the current reports, and where the principal work was the maintenance of a close blockade of the Gulf of Finland, and the fishing for small torpedos which had been laid down in great numbers in the passage to the north of Cronstadt. On 4 Feb. 1856 Dundas was nominated a K.C.B., and on the conclusion of the peace resumed his seat at the admiralty, where he continued till his death on 3 June 1861. He was a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, and on 24 Feb. 1858 was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral.

[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Marshall's Royal Nav. Biog. ix. (vol. iii. pt. i.) 183; Gent. Mag. (1861, ii.), new ser. xi. 87.]

J. K. L.

DUNDAS, ROBERT, second Lord Arniston (d. 1726), ordinary lord of session, eldest son of Sir James Dundas, lord Arniston [q. v.], by Marion, daughter of Robert, lord Boyd, was educated abroad, but returned to Scotland as an adherent of the Prince of Orange, and represented Midlothian in the parliaments of 1700–2 and 1702–7. He was appointed an