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John Fullerton (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir John Reginald Thomas Fullerton, GCVO, CB (10 August 1840 – 29 June 1918) was a Royal Navy officer and courtier. Early lifeFullerton was born at Thrybergh in Yorkshire,[1] the only son of the Rev. Weston Fullerton, Rector of Thrybergh, a scion of the landed gentry.[2][3] His father died in 1843, and in 1853 Fullerton joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman.[3] Naval careerIn 1861 Fullerton was promoted lieutenant, and in 1862 he joined the almost new armoured frigate HMS Defence, a ship of the Channel Squadron. From 18 August to 14 December 1864 he was an Additional Lieutenant in HMS Bombay, an elderly 84-gun second rate ship of the line, cruising the coast of South America.[3] The ship was destroyed in an accidental fire during target practice near Flores Island in the River Plate, off Montevideo, with the loss of some ninety officers and men.[4] In 1865 he joined HMS Narcissus, a wooden-hulled screw frigate, still on the South America station, and on 10 March 1870, still a Lieutenant, was posted to the new corvette Volage in the Channel Squadron.[3] At the end of 1870 Volage transferred to a Flying Squadron which circumnavigated the world and did not return to England until the end of 1872.[5] By an Order in Council dated 5 February 1872, Fullerton was promoted to the rank of commander.[6] In 1874 Volage took a group of astronomers to the Kerguelen Islands to observe a transit of Venus.[7] In 1875 Fullerton joined the royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert as second-in-command under Hugh Cambell, who died of typhoid fever on 12 February 1877.[3] He was promoted captain on 10 January 1878,[8] and on 18 January 1883 was posted as Captain to HMS Sapphire, an Amethyst-class wooden screw corvette of the China Squadron.[3] However, he was soon called home, as on 15 October 1884 he was given command of the royal yacht Victoria and Albert II,[9] a position he retained until 1901.[10] On 1 January 1893 Fullerton was promoted rear-admiral and an Honorary Aide-de-Camp to HM the Queen.[11] On 9 May 1899, at the time of Queen Victoria's visit to Cherbourg, he was knighted by being appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order[12] and on 13 July of the same year was promoted vice-admiral.[13] On 1 February 1901, the eve of the funeral of Queen Victoria, he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order,[14] and on 25 February was appointed an Honorary Naval Aide-de-Camp to the new King, Edward VII.[15] In early 1903 he received the First class of the Prussian Order of the Crown, with brilliants.[16] On 15 March 1904, Fullerton retired the service with the rank of full admiral.[17] Private lifeOn 18 June 1874 Fullerton married Ada Capell, a daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Samuel Capell,[2] who was a grandson of William Capell, 4th Earl of Essex.[18] Their children were a daughter, Judith, and a son, Admiral Sir Eric Fullerton (1878–1962). In 1901 Judith married Lieutenant Sidney Julius Meyrick (1879–1973), who later became Admiral Sir Sidney Meyrick.[citation needed] In 1908 Eric married Dorothy Sibyl Fisher, one of the daughters of Admiral John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher.[19] Notes
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