Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats GCB was a British naval officer who fought throughout the American Revolution, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War. He retired in 1812 due to ill health and was made Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland from 1813 to 1816. In 1821 he was made Governor of Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, London. Keats held the post until his death at Greenwich in 1834. Keats is remembered as a capable and well respected officer. His actions at the Battle of Algeciras Bay became legendary.
Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats (1757–1834) © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Battle of San Domingo
Memorial to Admiral Keats, Greenwich Hospital Chapel
Greenwich Hospital, London
Greenwich Hospital was a permanent home for retired sailors of the Royal Navy, which operated from 1692 to 1869. Its buildings, in Greenwich, London, were later used by the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and the University of Greenwich, and are now known as the Old Royal Naval College. The word "hospital" was used in its original sense of a place providing hospitality for those in need of it, and did not refer to medical care, although the buildings included an infirmary which, after Greenwich Hospital closed, operated as Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital until 1986.
Greenwich Hospital, in the painting London from Greenwich Park, in 1809, by William Turner
Detail in the Chapel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
The Painted Hall
Chapel, as refitted by James Stuart after a fire