{{short description|Royal Navy Admiral (1823-1901)}} {{about||the English clergyman and cricketer|George Willes (cricketer)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Admiral |name = Sir George Willes |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB}} |image= |caption= |birth_date={{birth-date|19 June 1823}} |death_date={{death-date and age|18 February 1901|19 June 1823}} |birth_place= |death_place=London |nickname= |allegiance={{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom |branch= 23px Royal Navy |service_years=1838–1888 |rank=Admiral |unit= |commands=HMS ''Chesapeake''<br>HMS ''Impérieuse''<br>HMS ''Prince Consort''<br>China Station<br>Portsmouth Command |battles=Crimean War<br>Second Opium War |awards=Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath |relations= |other_work= }}

Admiral '''Sir George Ommanney Willes''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB}} (19 June 1823 – 18 February 1901) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

==Early life== Born at Hythe, Hampshire in 1823, Willes was the son of Captain George Wickens Willes, RN, by his wife Anne Lacon, daughter of Sir Edmund Lacon, Baronet.<ref name=TTObit>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Obituary – Admiral Sir George Willes |date=19 February 1901 |page=8 |issue=36382}}</ref> He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and joined the Royal Navy in 1838.<ref name=odnb>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36911 Sir George Willes at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]</ref>

==Naval career== Willes received his commission as Mate in 1842, and as Lieutenant in 1844,<ref name=TTObit/> his early career being uneventful until the outbreak of the Crimean War, when he took part in the bombardments of Odessa and of Sevastopol's Konstantin Battery in 1854.<ref name=odnb/> In April that year he was promoted Commander, and in May 1856 Captain.<ref name=TTObit/> He was given command of the frigate HMS ''Chesapeake'' in 1859,<ref>[http://www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/southsea/chesapeake.htm Memorials in Portsmouth] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016215311/http://memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/southsea/chesapeake.htm |date=16 October 2007 }}</ref> and of HMS ''Impérieuse'' in 1861. In both cases as Flag Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies.<ref name=odnb/> In this capacity he took part in the Battle of the Taku Forts during the Second Opium War.<ref>[http://www.pdavis.nl/China22.htm Sir George Ommanney Willes] William Loney RN</ref>

In 1864 he was made Captain of the ironclad warship HMS ''Prince Consort''.<ref name=odnb/> He was promoted to rear admiral on 11 June 1874.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24106|page=3097|date=19 June 1874}}</ref>

He became Admiral-Superintendent at Devonport in 1876 and Commander-in-chief, China Station in 1881.<ref name=odnb/> His last post was as Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1886.<ref name=odnb/> He retired in 1888.<ref name=odnb/>

==Family== In 1855 he married Georgiana Matilda Josephine, daughter of William Joseph Lockwood and granddaughter of Sir Mark Wood, 1st Baronet. His younger brother was the cricketer Edmund Willes.<ref name=odnb/><ref>Burke's Landed Gentry, 18th Ed., 1969, vol. II, 'Willes formerly of Newbold Comyn' pedigree</ref><ref>The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, L. G. Pine, London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972, page 170</ref>

==See also== * {{cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=Willes, George Ommanney |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=John Murray}}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{Succession box| title=Commander-in-Chief, China Station | before=Robert Coote | after=Sir William Dowell | years=1881&ndash;1884}} |- {{succession box | title=Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth | years=1886&ndash;1888 | before=Sir Geoffrey Hornby | after=Sir John Commerell}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willes, George}} Category:1823 births Category:1901 deaths Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War Category:People from New Forest District Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Second Opium War