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Perth

People: Admiral Robert Crown

Born in Perth in 1754, as Robert Croom, served with the RN in the Red Sea aboard the sloop Cormorant. In 1788 entered Russian navy and fought at Hogland against the Swedes. He was given command of the former RN vessel Mercury (22 guns) with which he captured the 42 gun Swedish brig, Venus, in the Oslo fjord. His capture of vessels bound for Elsinore earned him a pension of 1000 silver roubles.

His son Edmund (later also a Russian admiral in the 1870s) was at Perth Academy from 1813-15. His wife always sailed with him tending the sick.

He was appointed Rear Admiral on the Izyaslav in the Baltic in 1799 and commanded the Reval squadron on the Rotislav and the Baltic fleet from 1804 as vice admiral. Retired as a result of the Crimean War between 1808 and 1812 but took occasional command of the Baltic fleet from 1816 and made full admiral in 1818. Died in St Petersburg, June 1841.