Robert Lambert Baynes was rear admiral and commander in chief of the Pacific Station,
with headquarters in
Valparaiso, Chile.
1 He entered the Royal Navy in
1810, served with distinction in the Mediterranean and was appointed rear admiral on
7 February 1855, while serving in the Baltic.
2 Appointed commander in chief of the Pacific Station on
8 July 1857, Baynes was ordered north on
28 June 1858 to help maintain order during the
Fraser River gold rush, arriving in his flagship, the
Ganges, in time to attend the inauguration of the government of
British Columbia at
Fort Langley on 19 November.
3He then returned to
Valparaiso and returned to
Esquimalt again in
August 1859 at the height of the
San Juan Island dispute, rejecting
James Douglas's request to land marines on the island to oust the Americans.
4 The San Juan boundary dispute, combined with the events of the gold rush, prompted
Baynes to press the Admiralty to transfer the headquarters of the Pacific Station
from
Valparaiso to
Esquimalt, which was done in
1862.
5 Baynes was knighted for services on
18 April 1860, departed
Esquimalt in the
Ganges in
September 1860, and arrived in England in
April 1861.
6 He was promoted to vice-admiral in
1861 and to admiral in
1865, by which time he had retired from active service.
7 He died on
7 September 1869 in
London.
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