Lord Robert Manners

Sailor

In the north transept of Westminster Abbey is a tall monument (25 feet high) of white and coloured marbles, known as The Three Captains memorial, by the sculptor Joseph Nollekens. It commemorates Royal Navy captains William Bayne, William Blair and Lord Robert Manners who were killed in 1782. On a column are relief portraits of all three with their names and ages (50, 41 and 24 respectively). A figure of Fame surmounts the column and below is Neptune on a sea-horse and Britannia with a lion. Naval trophies flank the inscription panel which reads:

Captain William Bayne, Captain William Blair, Captain Lord Robert Manners, were mortally wounded in the course of the naval engagements under the command of Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney, on the IXth and XIIth of April MDCCLXXXII. In memory of their services the King and Parliament of Great Britain have caused this monument to be erected.

The monument was not finished until 1793 and cost £4,000.

Robert was a son of John Manners, Marquess of Granby, and his wife Lady Frances Seymour. He was born on 6th February 1758 and was educated at Eton before joining the navy. He was in one of the ships that defeated the Spanish off Cape Vincent. In the Resolution he was severely wounded at the Battle of Les Saintes in the West Indies and died of tetanus on 23rd April 1782. Robert’s brother Charles became the 4th Duke of Rutland.