Smith Child (Royal Navy officer)

Smith Child
Clocktower in Tunstall dedicated to Admiral Smith Child.
Born	1730
Died	1813 (aged 82–83)
Place of burial	St. Margaret's Church, Wolstanton, Staffordshire
Allegiance	Great Britain
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1747–1799
Rank	Vice Admiral
Commands held	HMS Europe HMS Commerce de Marseille
Battles/wars	Seven Years' War American War of Independence French Revolutionary Wars

Smith Child (1730 – 1813) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served in the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary Wars, rising to the rank of admiral. He also established a pottery manufactory in Tunstall, Staffordshire.

Born into a well-to-do family from Audley, Staffordshire, Smith Child entered the Royal Navy in 1747 through a connection between his father (also named Smith Child) and First Lord of the Admiralty George Anson. Serving first aboard HMS Chester, he rose through the ranks, seeing service in the Seven Years' War supporting the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758 and the Siege of Pondicherry in 1760.

In 1763 he established a pottery-manufactory in Tunstall, Staffordshire, and married Margaret Roylance of Newfield, Staffordshire the following year, acquiring a significant estate from her family. They had two sons; one was lost at sea, and the other died two years before his father.

By the American War of Independence he had been promoted to captain. He was in command of HMS Europe as part of Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot's fleet in the March 1781 Battle of Cape Henry, in which the British fought off a French fleet attempting to enter Chesapeake Bay, and again later that year in the critical Battle of the Chesapeake in early September, in which the British lost control of the bay, enabling the Franco-American victory at Yorktown.