John Surman Carden

John Surman Carden
Admiral John Surman Carden. Frontispiece to Memoirs - see Further Reading below
Born	15 August 1771 Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire
Died	22 April 1858(1858-04-22) (aged 86) Ballycastle, Antrim
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain  United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1788–1837
Rank	Admiral
Battles/wars	French Revolutionary Wars • Glorious First of June • Capture of Immortalite Napoleonic Wars War of 1812 • Action of 25 October 1812

Admiral John Surman Carden (15 August 1771 – 22 April 1858) was an officer of the British Royal Navy in the early nineteenth century. Although the majority of his service was against the French during the Napoleonic Wars, he is best remembered for the Action of 25 October 1812, an engagement against a larger American frigate during the War of 1812 in which his ship HMS Macedonian was captured. Carden was criticised for the loss of his ship, specifically his handling of the vessel during the action. Following his defeat in October 1812 he never served again in an active capacity, but he remained in the Navy and continued to gradually rise though the ranks in retirement, eventually becoming a full admiral before his death in 1858.

Carden was born in 1771, the son of Army officer Major Carden of Tredington Court in Tewkesbury. Carden spent his childhood at home, his mother refusing to allow him to become a pageboy in the household of Queen Charlotte and also resisted orders to enlist him in his father's regiment at the age of eight. Both his parents died while he was young: his mother died aged only 26, while his father was killed in action during the American Revolutionary War. Carden was educated privately until he was 17, when he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1788, joining HMS Edgar under Captain Charles Thompson and later moving to the frigate HMS Perseverance under Captain Isaac Smith. In 1790 he became a midshipman and in 1793, at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, he moved to the ship of the line HMS Marlborough under Captain George Cranfield Berkeley.