George Digby Morant

Sir George Digby Morant, KCB (8 August 1837 – 13 February 1921) was an admiral in the British Royal Navy.

Morant came from an established family of gentry in Devon. He was born in Ireland 8 August 1837, the elder son of George Morant, of Carrickmacross, and Lydia Hemphill, daughter of John Hemphill, of Rathkenny, Co. Tipperary. His father served in the Grenadier Guards.

He married, in 1866, Sophia Georgina Eyres, younger daughter of Colonel George William Eyres, of the Grenadier Guards. Lady Morant died in 1911, and he died ten years later, on 13 February 1921. They had two sons and two daughters.** The younger son, Edgar Robert Morant, DSO (1874-1931) also served as a captain of the Royal Navy. The elder daughter Sybil Mary Morant married the publisher James Blackwood (1878-1951), while the younger daughter Aileen Morant (d 1969) married another royal navy officer, Captain Llewellyn Evan Hugh Llewellyn (1879-1970)

• As the only granddaughter of the late Capt and Mrs Llewellyn, my grandmother (Aileen Morant) had 7 brothers and sisters! My great Aunt Alice (née Morant) who became Mrs Wilfred Ward-Hunt was certainly one! There was also a brother who was a parish priest (Batcombe and Upton Noble) and who I believe went to India at some point (this may have been Edgar).

• ^ MORANT, Adm. Sir George Digby’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 13 Nov 2012
• MORANT, Capt. Edgar Robert’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 13 Nov 2012

Educated at Burney′s Royal Naval Academy, Gosport, Morant entered the Royal Navy in 1850. He was a Signal Midshipman on board the steam sloop Tenasserin during the Second Anglo-Burmese War 1852, and took part in the action and capture of the city of Bassein (mentioned in Despatches 20 May 1852). As a Mate, he served in the Crimean War (1853-1856), for which he received the Crimea Medal (two clasps) and in April 1858 the Imperial Order of Medjidie, 5th Class, from the Sultan of Turkey

He was promoted Commander in February 1866, Captain in February 1873, Rear-Admiral before 1895, and Vice-Admiral in June 1895. He served as Inspector of Irish Lights 1875–78, was superintended Pembroke Dockyard, and served as Admiral Superintendent of Chatham Dockyard 1892–95. In March 1901 he was promoted to Admiral, but he retired on his own request in May the same year, and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the King′s Birthday Honours List the following November

During his career he commanded the following ships: Grasshopper, Enterprise, Cockatrice, Valorous, Achilles, Victor Emmanuel (as Commodore), and received war medals for operations in Burma, the Baltic, Crimea, and China.

The controversial Australian war criminal Breaker Morant claimed to be his illegitimate son, but this appears to be a fabrication.