Downs Station

Downs Station
Active	1626–1834
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Type	Naval formation
Part of	Royal Navy
Garrison/HQ	Deal, Kent, England

The Downs Station^[1] also known as the Commander-in-Chief, the Downs^[2] or Admiral Commanding at the Downs^[3] was a formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain and then the United Kingdom's Royal Navy based at Deal. It was a major command of the Royal Navy from 1626 until 1834.^[4]

The Downs is a roadstead (area of sheltered, favourable sea) in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast. It is primarily known in naval history for the Dutch defeat of the Spanish in the Battle of the Downs in 1639.

The Downs served as permanent base for naval vessels operating out of Deal, Kent.^[5]

It served as a base for warships patrolling the North Sea. The command generally covered an area in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast. The station lasted until 1815, when it was absorbed into the Commander-in-Chief, The Nore's control, whose role and geographic area of responsibility was re-defined by the Admiralty.

Incomplete list includes:^[6]
N = died in post

• Commodore Sir Henry Palmer, 1626
• Rear-Admiral Sir John Penington, 1626–1631
• Vice-Admiral Sir John Penington, 1638–1645^[3]
• Vice-Admiral Sir John Mennes, 1645–1649^[3]
• Rear-Admiral Richard Badiley, 1649–1650
• Vice-Admiral John Lawson, 1650–1656
• Vice-Admiral Richard Badiley, 1656 N
• Admiral Sir Edward Montagu, 1657–1663^[3]
• Commodore Thomas Allin, 1663–1664^[3]
• Admiral Sir William Penn, 1664–1666^[3]
• Vice-Admiral Sir John Holmes, 1667–1679^[7]
• Commodore Stafford Fairborne, 1695–1697 ^[8]
• Rear-Admiral Basil Beaumont, 1699–1703 N
• Commodore Richard Griffith, 1707
• Commodore Gerard Ellwes, 1707–1708 ^[9]
• Commodore Charles Cornwall, 1709–1710
• Commodore Tudor Trevor, 1711–1712^[9]
• Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Wager, 1712–1714^[9]
• Captain Edward Vernon, 1716
• Commodore Philip Cavendish, 1716^[9]
• Admiral Edward Vernon, 1745^[7]
• Vice-Admiral William Martin, 1745
• Commodore Matthew Michell, 1745–1748
• Admiral Thomas Smith, 1755–1758
• Commodore Sir Peircy Brett, 1758–1761
• Commodore John Moore, 1761–1766^[9]
• Rear-Admiral John Montagu, 1771^[9]
• Commodore John Elliot, 1777–1778^[9]
• Vice-Admiral Matthew Buckle, 1778–1779^[9]
• Vice-Admiral Francis William Drake, 1779–1782^[10]
• Rear-Admiral John Evans, 1780–1781*
• Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, 1781–1782*^[11]

Station not active 1782 to 1790

• Rear-Admiral Sir Richard King, 1790–1791^[2]

Station not active 1791 to 1793

• Rear-Admiral John MacBride, 1793–1794 ^[12]
• Vice-Admiral Joseph Peyton, 1794–1799^[9]
• Rear-Admiral John Bazely, 1796–1797*
• Vice-Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge, 1799–1802^[13]
• Rear-Admiral Edward Thornbrough, 1803 ^[14]
• Vice-Admiral Philip Patton, 1803–1804^[15]
• Vice-Admiral John Holloway, 1804–1807 ^[16]
• Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Rowley, 1807–1808 ^[17]
• Vice-Admiral George Campbell, 1808–1811^[18]
• Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Foley, 1811–1815 ^[19]
• Rear-Admiral William Hall Gage, 1833.^[20][21]

Temporary command in absence of senior officer *

• Charnock, John (1794). Biographia Navalis; or, Impartial memoirs of the lives of officers of the navy of Great Britain from 1660 (Volume 1 ed.). pp. 29–31.
• Ireland, Bernard (2001), Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail - War at Sea 1756–1815, 1st Ed, WW Norton & Co. ISBN 9780393049831.
• Rodger, N.A.M. (2004), The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company. ISBN 9780393060508.
• Schomberg, Isaac (1802). Naval Chronology: Or, An Historical Summary of Naval & Maritime Events, from the Time of the Romans, to the Treaty of Peace, Volume 5. London, England: T Egerton. p. 224.