Person    | Male  Born 9/9/1754  Died 7/12/1817

Captain William Bligh

Naval officer and colonial governor. Born in Plymouth. He served under Captain James Cook and was chosen to command the Bounty on a voyage to Tahiti to collect bread-fruit plants. On the return journey he and eighteen other men were cast adrift in an open boat, by the mutinous crew led by Fletcher Christian. They eventually reached Timor having travelled nearly 4,000 miles.

He served under Lord Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen. Appointed Governor of New South Wales in 1805, he was imprisoned in another mutiny called the 'Rum Rebellion'. At his retirement he was promoted to admiral. Died at home, 27 Bond Street (2017 occupied by DKNY), according to Royal Museum Greenwich, though other sources give 25 (Tiffanys).

March 2022: London SE1 reported that "The tomb of Captain William Bligh of 'Mutiny on the Bounty' fame is one of the monuments featured in a Lambeth Council consultation on statues, memorials and street names with potential links to the transatlantic slave trade. ... Although the borough's own archivists noted that Bligh's association with the slave trade was 'marginal', his tomb has been included in the public consultation launched by the council this month asking for views on how contested memorials should be treated.  ... Captain Bligh was buried in the churchyard of St Mary-at-Lambeth and his tomb – made of local Coade stone produced on the South Bank – is now at the centre of the Garden Museum's courtyard."

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Captain William Bligh

Commemorated ati

Captain Bligh - SE1

William Bligh, 1754 - 1817, commander of the "Bounty", lived here. London Cou...

Read More

Captain Bligh - Wapping

William Bligh R.N., F.R.S., who transplanted breadfruit from Tahiti to the We...

Read More

Mydiddee

Caroline's Miscellany has an excellent post on Mydiddee.  We hope she won't m...

Read More

Other Subjects

Indian Rebellion / Indian Mutiny

Indian Rebellion / Indian Mutiny

A major, but ultimately unsuccessful, uprising in India against the rule of the British East India Company. Also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.

Event, Armed Forces, India

1 memorial
Joseph Frederick Oscar Bryant

Joseph Frederick Oscar Bryant

Co-partner or employee of the South Suburban Gas Company. Served but did not die in WW1. Joseph Frederick Oscar Bryant was born on 29 December 1885, one of the ten children of William Henry Bryant...

Person, Armed Forces

War served, WW1
1 memorial
William Jonas

William Jonas

Footballer and soldier. Born in Blyth, Northumberland. He started his football career with Jarrow Croft and joined Clapton Orient in June 1912. At the outbreak of WW1 he enlisted with the 17th Midd...

Person, Armed Forces, Sport / Games, France

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
C. Johnson

C. Johnson

J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. staff member who died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Arthur Harris

Arthur Harris

Resident of the West Ward, Hendon who served and died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial

Previously viewed

Frederick Handley Page

Frederick Handley Page

Aircraft designer and manufacturer. His company manufactured the Halifax bombers used in WW2.

Person, Aviation, Engineering, Transport

1 memorial
Swan and Hoop pub

Swan and Hoop pub

The pub in which John Keats, poet, was born, 1795.

Building, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Janet Gillman

Janet Gillman

Former councillor and mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Person, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Sir John Kirk

Sir John Kirk

J.P., Christian philanthropist, the children's friend.  Not to be confused with Sir John Kirk (1832-1922), the African explorer.  Sir John's great great grandson, Peter Mitchell, contacted us to sa...

Person, Children, Education, Philanthropy

1 memorial
Ealing memorial gates - WW1 + WW2

Ealing memorial gates - WW1 + WW2

W5, Ealing Green, Pitzhanger Manor-house entrance

The quotation comes from 'Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865' by James Russell Lowell. Its right-justification and t...

2 subjects commemorated, 3 creators