joined the fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and took part in the Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783. Returning to England upon the conclusion of hostilities, he hoisted his broad pendant aboard the 50-gun fourth rate Jupiter for a brief period as Commander-in-Chief on the Leeward Islands Station in 1786. Bickerton reached flag rank on 24 September 1787, when he was appointed Rear Admiral of the Blue, and was promoted to Rear Admiral of the White on 21 September 1790, at that time flying his flag aboard the 90-gun second rate Impregnable. In the General Election of 1790, he was elected to the British House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Rochester in Kent, retaining that seat until his death from an apoplectic fit on 25 September 1792. At the time of his death he was Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, flying his flag in the 98-gun second rate St. George. Family In 1758 Bickerton had married Mary Anne Hussey, and the marriage produced two sons and two daughters, the former including Richard Hussey Bickerton, an equally successful naval officer who became the 2nd Baronet upon his father's death, and rose even further in the Navy's ranks to finish as Admiral of the Red. References Further reading John Charnock, Biographia Navalis (London, 1798). David Syrett and R. L. DiNardo, The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660-1815. (Naval Records Society, 1994). |- |- 1727 births 1792 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1790–1796 Royal Navy rear admirals People educated at Westminster School, London Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War