Michael Seymour - Definition and Overview

Sir Michael Seymour (1802 - 1887) was a British admiral and the uncle of Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, also an admiral..

Michael Seymour entered the navy in 1813, and attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1854, in which year he served under Sir Charles Napier in the Baltic during the Crimean War.

In 1856 he was in command of the China station, and conducted the operations arising out of the affair of the lorcha Arrow (Second Opium War); he destroyed the Chinese fleet in June 1857, took Canton in December, and in 1858 he captured the forts on the Pei-ho, compelling the Chinese government to consent to the Treaties of Tianjin. He sat as Member of Parliament for Devonport from 1859 to 1863. In 1864 he was promoted to the rank of admiral.