Andrew Bickford

Bickford was educated at the South Devon Collegiate School and Stubbington House School.{{cite web |title=BICKFORD, Admiral Andrew Kennedy |work=Who Was Who |publisher=A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press |date=December 2007 |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U193504 |accessdate=1 December 2012}}{{subscription required}}

Bickford joined the Royal Navy in 1858 and took part in the action involving the Huáscar in 1877.[http://www.navalandmilitarymuseum.org/info_pages/history/bickford.html Naval & Military Museum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609194338/http://www.navalandmilitarymuseum.org/info_pages/history/bickford.html |date=9 June 2011 }} He commanded HMS Thalia during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882 and became Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station in 1900. His flagship in the Pacific was HMS Warspite until March 1902, when he hoisted his flag on board the first class cruiser HMS Grafton, and Warspite returned home.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=20 March 1902 |page=10 |issue=36720}} Promoted to vice admiral in 1904{{cite web|url=http://www.admirals.org.uk/admirals/individual.php?RecNo=186|title=Royal Navy Flag Officers of the Dreadnought Era 1904-1945|accessdate=18 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427172235/http://www.admirals.org.uk/admirals/individual.php?RecNo=186|archive-date=27 April 2016|url-status=dead}} and to full Admiral in 1908, he retired later that year.

The Bickford Tower erected at Esquimalt, British Columbia for signalling purposes in 1901 is named after him.

Bickford married Kathleen Dore on 16 April 1868 in the parish church of Queenstown (Cobh).{{cite news|title=Marriages|issue=18 April 1868|publisher=Cork Examiner. Note: Notice in the paper say Kathleen was daughter of the late Dr Dore.}} She was the daughter of Dr. Patrick Dore of Skibbereen who had died in 1847 from lung inflammation during the Irish famine.{{cite news|title=Deaths|publisher=Cork Examiner|date=1 February 1847}}Note: In his book Light Airs and Gentle Breezes, Richard F. Bickford, gives date of Dr Dore's death as being much later. The mortality rate amongst physicians in Ireland at this time was in the order of 25%, due to the outbreak of deadly infectious diseases contracted by many of the weakened famine victims.{{cite web|last1=Cormac Ó Gráda, University College Dublin|title=Ireland's Great Famine|url=http://eh.net/encyclopedia/irelands-great-famine/|website=Economic History Association|accessdate=17 July 2014}} Kathleen's mother, Catherine Power, was the sister of Maurice Power, Member of Parliament for Cork 1847–1852.

Bickford died at his home in Hove on 9 October 1927.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/111544162/ |title=Obituary: Admiral Bickford |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |publication-place=London |page=12 |date=1927-10-11 |access-date=2023-11-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}

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• Light Airs and Gentle Breezes - a victorian naval life Story: The Life & Times of Admiral Bickford by Richard E. Bickford (his grandson), published by Tartan Edge, 1996

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{{s-bef|before=Lewis Beaumont}}

{{s-ttl|title=Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station|years=1900 – 1903}}

{{s-aft|after=James Goodrich|as=Commodore Commanding, Pacific Station}}

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Category:1844 births

Category:1927 deaths

Category:Royal Navy admirals

Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George

Category:People educated at Stubbington House School