Frederick Grey Admiral The Hon . Sir Frederick William Grey GCB ( 23 August 1805 – 2 May 1878 ) was a Royal Navy officer . As a captain he saw action in the First Opium War and was deployed as principal agent of transports during the Crimean War . He became First Naval Lord in the Second Palmerston ministry in June 1861 and subsequently published a pamphlet " Admiralty Administration , 1861 – 1866 " describing his reforms which included , inter alia , the notion that all senior naval promotions and appointments should be non - political and should be discussed and agreed by the Naval Members of the Admiralty Board on a collective basis before recommendations were made to the First Lord of the Admiralty . Naval career . Born the son of Charles Grey , 2nd Earl Grey ( a former Prime Minister ) and Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby ( daughter of William Ponsonby , 1st Baron Ponsonby ) , Grey joined the Royal Navy in January 1819 . He initially joined the fifth - rate HMS " Naiad " in the Mediterranean Fleet as a midshipman and saw action against pirates off Cap Bon in Tunisia in 1824 . Promoted to lieutenant on 7 April 1825 , he transferred to the fifth - rate HMS " Sybille " in the Mediterranean Fleet that month and then to the sixth - rate HMS " Volage " on the South America Station in September 1825 . Promoted to commander on 17 April 1827 , he was posted to the sloop HMS " Heron " on the South America Station that same month . Promoted to captain on 19 April 1828 , Grey was given command successively of the sixth - rate HMS " Actaeon " in the Mediterranean Fleet in November 1830 , of the fourth - rate HMS " Jupiter " on the East Indies and China Station in August 1835 and then of the fifth - rate HMS " Endymion " also on the East Indies and China Station in October 1840 . In HMS Endymion he saw action in the First Opium War and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 24 December 1842 . Grey took command of the second - rate HMS " Hannibal " in March 1854 and conveyed 10 , 000 French troops to the Åland Islands off Finland before proceeding to the Bosphorus where he was deployed as principal agent of transports during the Crimean War . Promoted to rear - admiral on 22 January 1855 , and having been advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 2 January 1857 , he became Commander - in - Chief , Cape of Good Hope & West Coast of Africa Station , hoisting his flag in the third - rate HMS " Boscawen " , in April 1857 . Promoted to vice - admiral on 5 August 1861 , Grey became First Naval Lord in the Second Palmerston ministry in June 1861 . In this role he did not seek a seat as a Member of Parliament and instead sought to make the role professional rather than political . He published a pamphlet " Admiralty Administration , 1861 – 1866 " describing his reforms which included , inter alia , the notion that all senior naval promotions and appointments should be non - political and should be discussed and agreed by the Naval Members of the Admiralty Board on a collective basis before recommendations were made to the First Lord of the Admiralty . Having been promoted to full admiral on 24 April 1865 and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 28 March 1865 , he resigned his post when the Second Russell ministry fell from power in July 1866 . Grey lived at Lynwood House in Sunningdale in Berkshire and died there on 2 May 1878 . Family . He married Barbarina Charlotte Sullivan in 1846 but died without issue .