Home Riggs Popham

1762–1820

Home Riggs Popham was a Royal Navy officer, strategist and innovator whose career was repeatedly controversial. He helped develop a numerical signal code later used for Nelson’s message at Trafalgar, served in expeditions against the Cape and, without clear authorisation, launched the 1806 attack on Buenos Aires. Although court-martialled and reprimanded, he continued to receive commands and later took part in operations supporting the Spanish uprising against Napoleon.

Popham appears occasionally in Napoleonic naval fiction and provides a historical model for ambitious officers who blur the boundary between initiative and insubordination. Novels about the Cape, the River Plate and maritime intelligence can use his career to connect trade, conquest and communication. No single major series has made him a familiar protagonist, but his real adventures are more extravagant than many fictional plots.

In Julian Stockwin’s Betrayal, From the Cape, Home Riggs Popham assembles an unauthorised expedition against the Spanish colonies of the Río de la Plata. In Julian Stockwin’s Tyger, after speaking too freely during the court-martial of Home Riggs Popham, Kydd is denied the command he expected and sent instead to HMS Tyger, a ship weakened by mutiny and distrust.

Series

Series featuring Home Riggs Popham (1 series)

Thomas Kydd in Order

by Julian Stockwin 27 books 4.2

The Thomas Kydd series follows a Guildford wig-maker pressed into the Royal Navy in 1793 and traces his rise from inexperienced landsman to admiral. Across twenty-seven novels, Kydd learns the work of the lower deck, crosses to the quarterdeck and commands increasingly important ships during the French Revolutionary…

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