Admiral Jurien de la Gravière
(1812-1892)

Born on 19 November 1812, Jean-Baptiste Edmond Jurien de la Gravière was the son of Admiral Jurien who served through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and was a peer of France under Louis-Philippe.

Edmond Jurien de la Gravière entered the navy in 1828, was made a commander in 1841, and captain in 1850. During the Crimean War he commanded a ship in the Black Sea. He was promoted to be rear-admiral on 1 December 1855 and appointed to the command of a squadron in the Adriatic in 1859, when he sealed the Austrian ports with a close blockade. In October 1861 he was appointed to command the squadron in the Gulf of Mexico, and two months later the expedition against Mexico.

On 15 January 1862 he was promoted to be vice-admiral. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 he had command of the French Mediterranean fleet, and in 1871 he was appointed director of charts. As he had been a commander-in-chief in the face of the enemy, the age limit was waived in his favour and he was continued on the active list. He died on 4 March 1892.

He was a prolific author of works on naval history and biography, most of which first appeared in the Revue des deux mondes. Among the most noteworthy of these are Guerres maritimes sous la république et sous l’empire, which was translated by Lord Dunsany under the title of Sketches of the Last Naval War of Admiral Jurien; La Marine d'autrefois (1865), largely autobiographical; and La Marine d'aujourd'hui (1872). In 1866 he was elected a member of the Academy.