
Sir Robert Lambert Baynes (4 September 1796 – 7 September 1869) was a British Royal Navy admiral.
Biography[]
Baynes was born to Commander Thomas Baynes of the British Royal Navy and Edith Denman in Millbrook, Hampshire. Baynes joined the Royal Navy in 1810 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
He took part in the Battle of Navarino in 1827 during the Greek War of Independence. He was promoted to captain in 1828 and commanded the vessels HMS Andromache and HMS Bellerophon and served as one of the senior officers in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War. In 1857, he was made Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station.
After the gold rush and the San Juan dispute, Baynes sought to transfer the headquarters of the Pacific Station to the North Pacific. Esquimalt was Baynes' suggestion in 1859, to which the Admiralty agreed in 1862. On 18 April 1860 he was made a knight commander of the Bath. He remained Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station until 1861. He returned to the United Kingdom and never held command again, though he was promoted to vice-admiral of the blue on 5 August 1861. He was made vice admiral of the red in 1863 and admiral in 1865.
He died in Upper Norwood on 7 September 1869, and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.
He prevented the 1859 Pig War from escalating to a major conflict between the United States and the United Kingdom.