of Sveaborg in August 1855. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 5 July 1855. Key took command of the second-rate on the East Indies and China Station in January 1856 and went ashore with the naval brigade to take part in the Battle of Canton in December 1857 during the Second Opium War. He was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom in August 1859, became captain of the steam reserve at Devonport in July 1860 and went on to be captain of and superintendent of the Royal Navy College at Portsmouth in July 1863. Senior command Key had a considerable share in advising as to the reorganization of naval administration. Promoted to rear admiral on 20 November 1866, Key was made Director of Naval Ordnance and became an expert on muzzle-loading guns, this being recognised when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 4 June 1868. He went on to be Admiral Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard in July 1869 and Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard in June 1870 and subsequently second-in-command in the Mediterranean. Key was made President-designate of the proposed Royal Naval College, Greenwich, which was established by him and which opened the following year. He was promoted to vice admiral on 30 April 1873 and advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 24 May 1873. He became Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station in December 1875 and was then asked to command a specially-formed Baltic Fleet created in February 1878 to intimidate Russia from entering Constantinople during the closing stages of the Russo-Turkish War. Promoted to full admiral on 21 March 1878, he was appointed First and Principal Naval Aides-de-Camp to the Queen on 15 June 1879. Key became First Naval Lord in August 1879 and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 24 November 1882. As First Sea Lord he was primarily interested in administration and technology rather than strategy: he kept the cost of running the Navy within budgets, sanctioned the construction of six s and ensured the Navy was properly prepared for the Panjdeh Incident in 1885 when Russian forces seized Afghan territory at Panjdeh. Having been made a member of the Privy Council on 11 August 1884, he retired in June 1885 and died at