The Twickenham Museum
People : Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen

Sir George Pocock
A distinguished naval officer
1706 - 1792

Admiral and Knight of the Bath

George Pocock's working life was spent in the navy. He was promoted Rear-Admiral in 1755, Vice-Admiral in 1756 and Admiral in 1761 at which time he was appointed Knight of the Bath.

He did not undertake further service after 1763 and in 1766 he asked to be retired from the Admiral's list, possibly because a junior officer had been preferred over his head.

Comes to live in Twickenham

His service in the navy brought considerable wealth and in about 1763 he acquired the property later known as Orleans House, possibly through his marriage in 1762 to Sophia Pitt. He lived here for the remainder of his life and was buried at St Mary's Church where there is a memorial slab in the floor of the west end of the nave.

By coincidence, Pocock's maternal uncle, Streynsham Master, was ancestor to the Rev George Streynsham Master, Vicar of Twickenham from 1859 until 1865. An aunt married Admiral Sir George Byng, Viscount Torrington.


Further reading:

P Astley Cooper, The History of Orleans House Twickenham, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 1994
Dictionary of National Biography

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