Lieutenant John Hugh Bainbridge

Born at Bear Forest, a Palladian house at Mallow in County Cork, John Hugh Bainbridge was the son of John Hugh Bainbridge (1807-1877) and his wife Jane Anne née Westropp, who died at St Germain-en-Laye in 1859. His grandfather was the banker Thomas Bainbridge of Puget, Bainbridge and Co.

He was baptised at Mallow on 12 July 1845. He joined the Royal Navy in 1859 when he was fourteen years old and saw action in the final year of the Second Opium War (he was present at the taking of the Taku Forts). He also saw action against the Taiping Rebels. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 28 June 1866. He served during the Abyssinian Campaign of 1868. He received the thanks of the Royal Navy for his part in the suppression of the slave trade at Brava (Baraawe) in Somalia.

When this photograph was taken in August 1875, he was serving aboard the Royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert. The following month he married Rose Catherine Birch-Reynardson, daughter of Colonel Edward Birch-Reynardson of Rushington Manor, Hampshire. Their marriage produced three daughters and one son.

On 18 August 1876 he was promoted to the rank of Commander. He made a single appearance in first-class cricket when he played for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against Hampshire at Southampton in 1882, but he was dismissed without scoring. In 1885 he stood unsuccessfully against Parnell as the Parliamentary candidate for the City of Cork. In March 1897 he was appoint an ADC to Queen Victoria, replacing Arthur Dalrymple Fanshawe. On 11 July 1899 he was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral.

At the time of his death his residence was Elfordleigh, a large house at Plympton in Devon. Rear-Admiral Bainbridge died on 10 August 1901 of apoplexy while cruising on his yacht Vanadis off the coast of Bergen in Norway. He had bought the yacht in April 1901 from the 10th Earl of Weymss.

Photographed by Jabez Hughes of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.