William Locker (February 1731 – 26 December 1800) was an officer in the Royal Navy, who served with distinction during the eighteenth century. He rose to the rank of captain and held the posts of flag captain and commodore. Family and early years Locker was born in February 1731 in the official residence attached to the Leathersellers' Hall, in London. He was the second son of John Locker, a Merton College, Oxford-educated barrister and commissioner of bankrupts, who served as the clerk to the company, and his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of the physician Edward Stillingfleet. The Locker family had long been resident at Bromley (now in Kent), recorded since at least the Stuart era. Like his father, Locker attended Merchant Taylors' School and entered the Navy on 9 June 1746, at the age of 15. He initially served as a captain's servant under a family relation, Captain Charles Windham (or Wyndham) aboard HMS Kent. After Windham's death, Locker moved aboard the Vainqueur (under a Captain James Kirk), which was bound for the West Indies. He then joined HMS Vulture, followed by HMS Cornwall. The Cornwall was the flagship of Charles Knowles, and both she and Locker were present at the capture of Port Louis. Locker then rejoined Captain Kirk, by now aboard HMS Elizabeth, and returned to England. After the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, he made two or more voyages to India and China, serving with the East India Company. Seven Years War He rejoined the Navy in 1755, becoming master's mate aboard HMS St George, the flagship of Admiral Sir Edward Hawke. He was made lieutenant on 7 January 1756 and joined Hawke aboard HMS Antelope when he sailed to Gibraltar to relieve John Byng. Locker was promoted to the position of lieutenant aboard HMS Experiment, under Sir John Strachan on 4 July. Hawke seems to have had difficulty in having the appointment confirmed, but persisted, thus earning Locker's lifelong gratitude. Locker named his youngest and best-known son Edward Hawke Locker after the Admiral. Captain Strachan was taken ill for part of his captaincy of the Experiment, and he was temporarily replaced in January 1757 by John Jervis, then a lieutenant of HMS Culloden. Locker spent two important months as Jervis' shipmate. The Experiment fought an indecisive engagement with a large French privateer on 16 March, after which Jervis returned to the Culloden and