Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland

author

Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland

1777–1839

Best remembered as the Royal Navy officer who received Napoleon’s surrender aboard HMS Bellerophon, he built a long career through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. His own published account of that dramatic moment helped secure his place in naval history.

1 Audiobook

The Surrender of Napoleon Being the narrative of the surrender of Buonaparte, and of his residence on board H.M.S. Bellerophon, with a detail of the principal events that occurred in that ship between the 24th of May and the 8th of August 1815

The Surrender of Napoleon Being the narrative of the surrender of Buonaparte, and of his residence on board H.M.S. Bellerophon, with a detail of the principal events that occurred in that ship between the 24th of May and the 8th of August 1815

by Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland

About the author

Born in Fife in 1777, Frederick Lewis Maitland entered the Royal Navy young and rose through years of active service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He later reached the rank of rear admiral and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

The episode most closely linked with his name came in July 1815, when Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to him aboard HMS Bellerophon after the defeat at Waterloo. That encounter made Maitland a lasting figure in British naval history, and he later wrote a narrative describing the events on board.

Maitland remained in naval service after the wars and held further important commands before his death in 1839. Remembered as a steady professional officer rather than a flamboyant celebrity, he is often introduced to modern readers through the remarkable role he played at the very end of the Napoleonic era.