Admiral Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport, KB (2 December 17262 May 1814), of Cricket St Thomas, Somerset, was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Origins He was a younger son of the Rev. Samuel Hood (1691/2 – 1777), Vicar of Butleigh and prebendary of Wells Cathedral (both in Somerset) and Vicar of Thorncombe in Devon (whose monument survives in St Leonard's Church, Butleigh), by his wife Mary Hoskins, a daughter of Richard Hoskins, Esquire, of Beaminster, Dorset. His elder brother was Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (1724–1816). The sons of his first cousin Samuel Hood (1715–1805), a purser in the Royal Navy included Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Baronet (1762–1814), Captain Alexander Hood (1758–1798) and Captain Arthur Hood (1754–1776). Career The story of his entry into the navy is recounted by Edmund Lodge (1756–1839) (a personal acquaintance of Lord Bridport) in his Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain: Alexander entered the navy in January 1741 and was appointed lieutenant in in 1746. He was promoted to commander in 1756 and served as flag captain for Rear Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, first in in the Mediterranean Sea (the flagship of Rear-Admiral Saunders, under whom Hood had served as a lieutenant), then in the frigate . Seven Years' War In the Seven Years' War Hood fought at the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759, and in 1761 Minerva recaptured after a long struggle, the 60-gun of equal force, which had been captured by the French in 1756. For the remainder of the war, from 1761 to 1763, he was captain of in the Mediterranean. American War of Independence From this time forward Hood was in continuous employment afloat and ashore. In 1778 he was appointed to and fought at the First Battle of Ushant on 22 July. In the court-martial of Admiral Augustus Keppel that followed the battle, although adverse popular feeling was aroused by the course which Hood took in Keppel's defence, his conduct does not seem to have injured his professional career. In 1780 Hood was promoted to Rear Admiral of the White, and succeeded Kempenfeldt as one of Howe's flag officers. In the American Revolutionary War, in , he took part in Howe's relief of Gibraltar in 1782. French Revolutionary War Hood served in the House of Commons for a time. Promoted vice-admiral in 1787, he