George Byng , 1st Viscount Torrington Admiral of the Fleet George Byng , 1st Viscount Torrington , KB PC ( 27 January 1663 – 17 January 1733 ) was a British naval officer and statesman of the late 17th and early 18th centuries . His career included service as First Lord of the Admiralty during the reign of King George II . Naval career . Byng was born at Wrotham , Kent , England . In 1678 , he entered the Royal Navy as a King ' s Letter Boy . He left the navy for a brief time to join a military garrison stationed at Tangier , but rejoined the navy in 1683 as a lieutenant , and shipped for the East Indies . In 1688 he was instrumental in causing the Royal Navy to switch allegiance to William III , Prince of Orange . This naval force took part in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 , and William was installed as King of England , thus ensuring Byng ' s rapid rise in rank and fortune . In 1702 , Byng was given command of the " Nassau " , and took part in the capture and burning of the French Fleet at Vigo . The next year he was promoted to Rear - Admiral . In 1704 he was in the Mediterranean under the command of Sir Cloudesley Shovell , and led the bombardment squadron during Admiral Rooke ' s capture of Gibraltar . Byng took part in the Battle of Málaga , for which he received a knighthood . In 1707 , Sir George Byng served again under Shovell and took part in the unsuccessful Battle of Toulon . Sailing aboard his flagship HMS " Royal Anne " , he was present during the great naval disaster off the Isles of Scilly when Shovell and four of his ships were lost , claiming the lives of nearly 2 , 000 sailors . In 1708 Byng was promoted to full admiral , and took part in the struggle against the Jacobite uprising in Scotland . In 1718 he was made Admiral of the Fleet and commanded the fleet which routed the Spanish Fleet at the Battle of Cape Passaro , thwarting the attempt of the Spanish to take Sicily . Byng was rewarded handsomely for this victory by George I and given full power to negotiate with the various princes and states of Italy , on behalf of the English crown . In 1719 he assisted the Germans in taking Messina , and destroyed the remaining Spanish ships which forced the Spanish king to accept the terms of the Quadruple Alliance . On his return to England in 1721 he was made rear - admiral of Great Britain , a member of the privy council , Baron Byng of Southill in the county of Bedford , and 1st Viscount Torrington in Devon . In 1725 Byng was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath and in 1727 , on the accession of George II , he was made First Lord of the Admiralty . Byng ' s administration of the Admiralty was distinguished by the establishment of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth . He died in 1733 and is buried at Southill , Bedfordshire . Byng had 15 children , and two of his 11 sons — Pattee ( 1699 – 1747 ) and George ( 1701 – 1750 ) — became respectively the second and third Viscounts Torrington . His fourth - eldest son was Admiral Hon . John Byng , who was controversially court - martial led and shot at the outbreak of the Seven Years ' War in Europe . His third son Hon . Robert Byng was the grandfather of the soldier John Byng , 1st Earl of Strafford . The first Viscount Torrington ' s descendants retain the title to the present day . Torrington Road in Portsmouth is named after him .