{{Short description|Royal Navy Admiral (1843–1912)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Admiral |name = Sir Hugo Pearson |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB}} |birth_date=30 June 1843<ref>{{cite web |title =Pearson, Hugo Lewis|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8115103 |publisher=The National Archives (UK) |accessdate=21 May 2019 |date=1856}}</ref> |death_date={{dda|12 June 1912|30 June 1843|df=y}} |birth_place=Barwell, Leicestershire, England |death_place=Goodrich, Herefordshire, England |image= Admiral Sir Hugo Lewis Pearson.jpg |caption=Admiral Sir Hugo Lewis Pearson |nickname= |allegiance= {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom |service_years=1855–1908 |rank= Admiral |commands=HMS ''St Vincent''<br/>''HMY Osborne''<br/>HMS ''Colossus''<br/>HMS ''Excellent''<br/>HMS ''Collingwood''<br/>HMS ''Barfleur''<br/>Australia Station<br/>Nore Command |branch=23px Royal Navy |unit= |battles= |awards= Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |other_work= }} Admiral '''Sir Hugo Lewis Pearson''', KCB (30 June 1843 – 12 June 1912) was a Royal Navy officer who served as both Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station and Commander-in-Chief, The Nore.
==Early life and education== Hugo Lewis Pearson was born at Barwell,<ref name="WW">{{Who's Who|title=Pearson, Adm. Sir Hugo Lewis|id=U189780}}</ref> into a notable Staffordshire family with a long tradition of service in India and the British Armed Forces. He was the grandson of John Pearson (1771–1841), a barrister and senior East India Company official who served as Advocate-General of Bengal from 1824 to 1840.<ref name="visitation"/> His father General Thomas Hooke Pearson CB (1806–1892) served as an ADC to the Earl Amherst, then Governor-General of India.<ref name="visitation">{{cite book|editor-first=Frederick Arthur |editor-last=Crisp |title=Visitation of England and Wales |volume=10|url=https://archive.org/details/visitationofengl10howa/page/73/mode/1up |year=1902 |pages=73–77 |publisher=Privately printed |location=London}}</ref> He married in 1837 Frances Elizabeth Ashby Mettam, eldest daughter of George Mettam, Rector of Barwell.<ref name="visitation"/><ref>{{alox2|title=Mettam, George}}</ref>
Pearson attended private schools in Southwell, Nottinghamshire and Wimbledon, London.<ref name="WW"/>
==Naval career== Pearson joined the Royal Navy in 1855, at the age of 12 years.<ref name=bio>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19120615.2.56&srpos=93&e=-------10--11--on--2%22yelverton%22 Obituary: Admiral Sir H L Pearson] Evening Post, 14 June 2010</ref> In his early career, he was promoted to Lieutenant on 14 September 1863 and only 3 weeks later, on 20 October, Captain Henry Boys reported on Pearson's "active conduct in a fire breaking out out in the Pelorus."<ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=Dreadnought Project – Hugo Lewis Pearson |url=http://dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/Hugo_Lewis_Pearson |access-date= 3 October 2021}}</ref> In February, 1865 Pearson destroyed piratical junks in Jungwa Bay.<ref name="auto"/>
Pearson was promoted to Commander with seniority of 6 February 1872, and was promoted to the rank of Captain with seniority of 9 December 1879.<ref>{{cite web |title=ADM 196/86/27 |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8115103 |website=Naval Officer's service record – Hugo L Pearson |publisher=National Archives |access-date=3 October 2021}}</ref>
He was Captain of the first-rate HMS ''St Vincent'', the Royal yacht ''Osborne'' and the second-rate, HMS ''Colossus''.<ref name=bio/> He went on to command the shore establishment HMS ''Excellent'' and, later, the battleships HMS ''Collingwood'' and HMS ''Barfleur''.<ref name=bio/> Between 1892 and 1895 he was Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria,<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituary of Admiral Sir H L Pearson|work= Evening Post|volume=83|date= 15 June 1919|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19120615.2.56}}</ref> and was the Rear Admiral of the Reserve Fleet during the Jubilee Review in 1897.<ref name=bio/>
In 1898 he became Commander in Chief, Australia Station and served as such for two years until late 1900, when he returned to the United Kingdom and bought Rocklands House in Goodrich, Herefordshire. On 19 March 1901, he was promoted to vice-admiral<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27297 |date=22 March 1901 |page=2021}}</ref> and in 1903 he became Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, a post he held until 1907.<ref>Whitaker's Almanack 1904</ref> He retired on 30 June 1908.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28156|date=7 July 1908|page=4940}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1874 Pearson married Emily Frances Mary Key (1848–1930), second daughter of General George William Key (1812–1883) of the 15th Hussars.<ref name="WW"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Boase |first1=Frederic |title=Modern English Biography |date=1897 |publisher=Netherton and Worth, For the author |page=213|volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_IVmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA213 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes|date= 1912 |page =1330 |url=https://archive.org/details/1912kellyshandbo00londuoft/page/1330/mode/2up}}</ref> The couple had two sons and a daughter who survived into adulthood: two other children died in infancy.<ref name="visitation"/> Their eldest son, Lieutenant Reginald William Pearson, was killed in 1900 in the Siege of Ladysmith during the Boer War<ref>{{cite web|title=Officers Died: South Africa 1899 – 1902 |url=https://glosters.tripod.com/BoerP.htm |access-date= 3 October 2021}}</ref> and his parents erected a memorial window in Goodrich Church in his honour.<ref>{{cite web|title=Memorials in St Giles Church Goodrich – South East window 22 |url=https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/5f15c9476eee0/content/pages/documents/1503333306.pdf |access-date= 3 October 2021}}</ref> His younger son was Vice-Admiral John Lewis Pearson CMG (1879–1965).<ref>{{cite web|title=Dreadnought Project – John Lewis Pearson |url=http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/John_Lewis_Pearson}}</ref>
Hugo Pearson died on 12 June 1912, aged 69. He left estate of the gross value of £51,971, with net personalty of £43,888.<ref name="auto"/> His son John married in 1912 Phoebe Charlotte Beadon, daughter of Col. Cecil Beadon of Copthorne, and granddaughter of Cecil Beadon. He inherited Rocklands House.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Frederick Arthur |editor-last=Crisp |title=Visitation of England and Wales |volume=18 |url=https://archive.org/details/visitationofengl18howa/page/n315/mode/1up|year=1914|page=liv|publisher=Privately printed |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Will of Admiral Sir H. L. Pearson, K.C.B. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002068/19120711/063/0002 |work=Ross Gazette |date=11 July 1912|page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Colonel Beadon |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001246/19130122/080/0008 |work=Torquay Directory and South Devon Journal |date=22 January 1913|page=8}}</ref> Their son Thomas Cecil Hook Pearson (1914–2019) was a senior officer of the British Army who served as Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces Northern Europe.<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituary of General Sir Thomas Pearson |work= The Times|date= 17 December 2019 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/general-sir-thomas-pearson-obituary-ps0lk38x9}}</ref>
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = |image size = |bannerimage = |notes = |year_adopted = |coronet = |escutcheon =Per fesse nebuly, azure and sable, in chief, two suns in splendour, and in base, issuant from a mount, a sun-flower, stalked and leaved, all proper<ref name="visitation"/> |crest = In front of a demi-sun in splendour proper, a parrot's head erased argent, gorged with a collar nebuly azure<ref name="visitation"/> |supporters = |compartment = |motto = |orders = Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) |other_elements = |banner = |badge = |symbolism = |previous_versions = }}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box| title=Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station| before= Cyprian Bridge| after= Lewis Beaumont|years=1898–1900|}} |- {{succession box | title=Commander-in-Chief, The Nore | years=1903–1907 | before=Sir Albert Markham | after=Sir Gerard Noel}} {{end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Hugo}} Category:1843 births Category:1912 deaths Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:People from Barwell