Galfridus Walpole

Walpole was born in 1683, the son of Robert Walpole and Mary Burwell of Houghton, Norfolk, and was the younger brother of the politician Sir Robert Walpole. In 1709 he married Cornelia Hays, but they had no children.{{cite book |editor=R. Sedgwick |title=WALPOLE, Galfridus (1683-1726), of Westcomb House, Blackheath, Kent |work=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=1970 |url=https://archive.org/details/houseofcommons170000sedg |isbn=9780118800983 |accessdate=5 July 2014 |url-access=registration }}

In 1706 Walpole was commander of {{HMS|Solebay|1694|6}}, a sixth-rate 24-gun frigate,{{Cite book |last=Winfield |first=Rif |title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |year=2010 |location=Barnsley |pages=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m4-CAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT249 |isbn=9781848320406 }}{{cite book |title=The Naval Chronicle for 1805, Volume 14 |publisher=I. Gold |year=1805 |location=London |pages=92–93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jPA1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA92 }} followed by {{HMS|Feversham|1696|6}} and between 1707–1709 he commanded {{HMS|Poole|1696|6}}, a fifth-rate frigate. From 1710–1714 he was in charge of {{HMS|Lion|1709|6}}, a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line. His last commission was on {{HMS|Peregrine Galley|1700|6}} from 1716–1720, a ship that later became a royal yacht.{{cite web |last= |first= |authorlink= |title=Galfridus Walpole (d. 1726) |publisher=ThreeDecks.org |date= |url=http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_crewman&id=1275 |accessdate=25 July 2014 }}

While commanding Lion, on 22 March 1711,{{Ref|Notea|a}} Walpole's ship was in Vado Bay on the Italian coast in the Mediterranean as a lookout cruiser when it sighted four French ships. Amongst those who gave chase and engaged the enemy for about two hours was Lion, with the loss of forty men. Walpole was so badly injured that his right arm was amputated by the ship's surgeon, John Atkins. He sat up for two nights with Walpole, who gave the surgeon no thanks for the attention.{{Cite book |last=Clowes |first=William Laird |authorlink=William Laird Clowes |title=The Royal Navy, a history from the earliest times to the present |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston and Company |year=1898 |location=London |pages=531 |url=https://archive.org/stream/royalnavyhistory02clowuoft#page/577 }}{{cite DNB|wstitle=Atkins, John|last=Moore|first=Norman|authorlink=Sir Norman Moore, 1st Baronet|volume=2}}

File:GreenwichHospitalCanaletto1752.jpg in 1752]]

Walpole was returned unopposed as Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel, Cornwall, at the 1715 general election. Also in 1715, he was appointed to a sinecure post as Treasurer of Greenwich Hospital, London. He was appointed joint postmaster general, on 8 April 1721 {{London Gazette |issue=5944 |date=8 April 1721 |page=1 }} when he was required to vacate his seat in parliament, and also stood down as Treasurer of Greenwich Hospital. He remained in post as Postmaster General for the rest of his life. In 1725, he took out a lease on Westcombe Park, a country estate owned by Sir Gregory Page, 2nd Baronet.{{cite web |title=Westcombe Woodlands: History: The Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century |publisher=Westcombe Woodlands |year=2013 |url=http://www.westcombewoodlands.org/history/2/ |accessdate=5 July 2014 }}

Walpole died without issue on 7 August 1726. He is buried at the Church of St Martin on his brother’s Houghton Hall estate.{{cite web|url=https://www.houghtonhall.com/the-walled-garden-stables/st-martins-church/|title=St Martin's Church|publisher=Houghton Hall Estate|access-date=31 July 2022}}

According to legend, Walpole's sword, used on HMS Lion, was given to a young Horatio Nelson, who is reported to have been carrying it when he too lost his right arm, in the Battle of Santa Cruz on 15 July 1797.{{cite book |last=Nevill |first=Lady Corothy |title=Mannington and the Walpoles |publisher=Fine Art Society |year=1894 |location=London |pages=13–14 |url=http://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2007/20070601074ma/20070601074ma.pdf }} The Walpole sword, which has a silver-hilted hanger, was made by Nixon Cutlers of London, has London silver hallmarks for 1752, and a 60 cm curved blade. Due to its provenance, the sword is known as the Galfridus Walpole — Suckling Sword, having been given to Walpole's godson and great nephew Maurice Suckling whose sister Catherine Suckling was Nelson's mother. William Suckling, Maurice's brother, gave the sword to Nelson, who wore his uncle's valued gift in his early career. The sword appears to have been returned to the Suckling family.{{cite web |title=Sword Carried by Nelson Offered at Sotheby's |work=Press release |publisher=Sotheby's |date=30 October 2003 |url=http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/BID/3410150189x0x104943/8dfb2a96-6e3c-43c6-8530-d935a011d164/20031021-120462.pdf |accessdate=22 September 2014 }}

The sword was sold at auction by Sotheby's in late 2003 for £36,000, described as "believed to be that carried by Captain (later Admiral Lord) Horatio Nelson" and with extensive notes relating to the provenance and origins of the story that it was with Nelson at the time of his death.{{cite web |title=The Galfridus Walpole and Maurice Suckling silver-hilted hanger believed to be that carried by Captain (later Admiral Lord) Horatio Nelson, by Nixon, Strand, London |work=Auction lot description |publisher=Sotheby's |date=4 December 2003 |url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2003/arms-armour-w03806/lot.80.html |accessdate=22 September 2014 }} Some, however, have doubted the truth of the legend, and W. J. Andrew in Notes and Queries in 1922 argued that Nelson would be most unlikely to have used a hundred-year-old sword in battle.{{Cite journal |last=Andrew |first=W.J. |title=The Fighting Sword of Lord Nelson |journal=Notes & Queries |volume= s12-XI |issue=232 |pages=241–242 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |date=23 September 1922 |url=https://academic.oup.com/nq/article-abstract/s12-XI/232/241/4233424 |issn=0029-3970 |accessdate=3 December 2018 |doi=10.1093/nq/s12-XI.232.241 |url-access=subscription }}

• John Atkins (naval surgeon)

:a.{{Note|Notea}}Clewes uses the date as 22 March 1711 but other published accounts, such as Sotheby's and Lady Nevill, state 26 March as the date of the battle.

{{reflist}}

• [https://archive.org/stream/collinsspeerage05brydgoog#page/n662/mode/1up Short Walpole biography] (p652-3) Collins's Peerage
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=NywIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA374 Biographia navalis; or, Impartial memoirs of the lives ... of officers of the navy of Great Britain from ... 1660, Volume 3] Walpole's career
• [http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/orford1742.htm Walpole family] Cracroft's Peerage

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| title = Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel

| years = 1715–1721

| with = Thomas Liddell 1715–1718

| with2 = Edward Eliot 1718–1720

| with3 = John Newsham 1720–1721

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{{s-bef | before=James Craggs the Elder | before2=Charles Cornwallis}}

{{s-ttl | title=Postmaster General of the United Kingdom | years=1721–1726 | with=Edward Carteret}}

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Category:1683 births

Category:1726 deaths

Category:Royal Navy captains

Category:Postmasters general of the United Kingdom

Category:English amputees

Category:British MPs 1715–1722

Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Lostwithiel

Galfridius

Category:People from Houghton, Norfolk

Category:British politicians with disabilities