John Forbes (Royal Navy officer)

John Forbes
John Forbes, 1778. Oil on canvas portrait by George Romney
Born	17 July 1714 Minorca
Died	10 March 1796(1796-03-10) (aged 81) Savile Row, London
Buried at	St Mary's Watford, Hertfordshire
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1726–1796
Rank	Admiral of the Fleet
Commands held	HMS Poole HMS Port Mahon HMS Severn HMS Tyger HMS Guernsey HMS Norfolk
Battles/wars	War of the Austrian Succession

Admiral of the Fleet John Forbes (17 July 1714 – 10 March 1796), styled The Honourable from 1734, was a Royal Navy officer. After taking part in an expedition to Lisbon to support the Portuguese in the face of a Spanish threat, he saw action as captain of the third-rate HMS Norfolk at the Battle of Toulon during the War of the Austrian Succession. He was one of the few captains who really bore down on the enemy.

Forbes went on to serve as a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty under successive Governments. In that role, he was convinced of the illegality of the sentence of death on Vice-Admiral John Byng and refused to sign Byng's death warrant. He also served as Member of Parliament for St Johnstown and then as Member of Parliament for Mullingar in the Parliament of Ireland.

Born the second son of George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard and Mary (the eldest daughter of William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy), Fornes joined the Royal Navy in the 70-gun third-rate HMS Burford on 31 May 1726. He served as a volunteer under the command of his maternal uncle, the Honourable Charles Stewart. He served with HMS Burford in the Mediterranean, before moving with his uncle to the third-rate HMS Lion, and the two sailed together to the West Indies in 1729. Stewart promoted Forbes to lieutenant, while serving there, on 16 March 1731.