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Byng, George

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Byng, George (1663-1733)

British admiral. He captured Gibraltar in 1704; commanded the fleet that prevented an invasion of England by the ‘Old Pretender’ James Francis Edward Stuart in 1708; and destroyed the Spanish fleet at Messina in 1718. John Byng was his fourth son. Knighted 1704, Viscount 1721.

At the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690 he advised protecting the Thames and awaiting the return of the rest of the fleet, but Queen Mary ordered him to give battle. He was subsequently court-martialled and acquitted.

He said: ‘while we had a fleet in being they would not dare to make an attempt’ and from this came the strategic doctrine of the ‘fleet in being’, whereby the existence of a powerful fleet becomes a deterrent in itself.
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