The Brave Benbow website [visit link] makes mention of the
busts:
"Busts, head and shoulders, within
decorated roundels, of British admirals in uniforms of their period. Each
roundel consists of a plain outer moulding with inner circular wreath (laurel?)
topped by single rose motif. The base has an inscription panel with each
admiral’s surname. The innermost moulding is rimmed by a rope. All are in very
high relief. Each head is either more or less face on or at a three quarter turn
to the left or right. They run along the top of the north facade of the building
facing the river. From left to right (east to west): Anson, Drake, Cook (these
first three on east pavilion), Howard, Blake, Benbow, Sandwich (over door),
Rodney, Duncan, Collingwood, Howe, Nelson, St Vincent."
The building is Grade II listed and the
entry at the English Heritage website [visit
link] tells us:
"Former rackets courts, now
laboratories. The western block 1874-5 by Colonel Clarke RE, the central screen
and eastern part identical in design and added in 1882-3 by General Pudsey RE to
form a symmetrical composition. Converted to laboratories in c.1906. Stone and
stuccoed facades, roof hidden by high parapets. Seven-bay screen with higher
two-bay ends. Tuscan pilasters across screen break forward into pairs of Ionic
columns set between engaged columns with fluted capitals, all these in antis
under projecting parapets at ends. The parapets are elaborate, with raised
centrepieces supported on swags and urns set on high and elaborately carved
plinths as cornerpieces; all this decoration the work of C R Smith. Rusticated
ground floor. At first-floor height busts in high relief set in roundels depict
from east to west: Anson, Drake, Cook, Howard, Blake, Benbow, Sandwich, Rodney,
Duncan, Collingwood, Howe, Nelson and St Vincent. Nine-bay side elevations and
three-bay rear also denoted by pilasters, the ground floor rusticated under
fluted frieze and with empty first-floor roundels. Above these a deep frieze and
an attic storey also broken into bays by short pilaster strips."
The British Civil Wars website [visit link] tells
us about Robert Blake:
"Born at Bridgwater in Somerset,
Robert Blake was the eldest of eight surviving children of a prosperous West
Country merchant. After attending the local grammar school, he went to Wadham
Hall, Oxford, in 1615 where he is said to have developed strong republican
principles. He returned to Bridgwater when his father died in 1625 in order to
take over the family business.
Blake was elected to the Short
Parliament in the spring of 1640 as MP for Bridgwater, but lost his seat in the
elections for the Long Parliament the following autumn. During the First Civil
War, Blake commanded a company under Colonel Fiennes at Bristol, which was
besieged by Prince Rupert in July 1643. When Fiennes surrendered Bristol, Blake
continued defending Prior's Hill Fort for another day, claiming that he had not
received orders from Fiennes to surrender. Prince Rupert is said to have wanted
Blake hanged for breaking the terms of the surrender, but he was persuaded to
countermand the order. Appointed lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Popham's
regiment, Blake led an unsuccessful surprise attack on Bridgwater, during which
his brother Samuel was killed.
In April 1644, Blake was stationed
with five hundred men at the garrison of Lyme in Dorset, which was besieged by
Rupert's brother Prince Maurice. The Royalists were powerless to prevent
Parliament's navy from shipping in supplies and reinforcements, which enabled
the Parliamentarians to defend the town for two months until it was finally
relieved by the Earl of Essex on his ill-fated march into the West in June 1644.
Blake was promoted to colonel and undertook a daring march from Lyme to Taunton,
an important centre of communications in the heart of the Royalist-held West
Country. Blake's force captured Taunton and held the town for a year, surviving
three sieges. Blake famously declared that he had four pairs of boots and would
eat three pairs before he would surrender Taunton. The siege was finally lifted
when Sir Thomas Fairfax sent a relief force in May 1645. Blake took command at
the siege of Dunster Castle in Somerset, which surrendered to him in April
1646.
Blake's defence of Lyme and Taunton
made him a popular hero in the west and he was elected MP for Bridgwater in the
"recruiter" by-elections of 1646. He took no part in the political struggle
between the New Model Army and Parliament in 1647 and did not take up arms in
the Second Civil War. He also remained neutral in the contest between the
Presbyterians and Independents. Although Blake's religion was Presbyterian, he
was a staunch republican and opposed any compromise or attempt at reconciliation
with the King. He remained a Member of Parliament after Pride's Purge in
December 1648, but played no direct part in the King's trial and
execution.
After the establishment of the
Commonwealth, the Council of State put the office of lord high admiral into
commission. With his background in maritime commerce, proven military record and
loyalty to the "Good Old Cause", Blake was appointed one of the commissioners of
the navy, or generals-at-sea, along with Edward Popham and Richard
Deane.
Blake sailed against Prince
Rupert's squadron of privateers stationed at Kinsale in southern Ireland in May
1649, chasing Rupert to Portugal and blockading him in Lisbon harbour from March
to September 1650. Blake seized the Portuguese Brazil fleet after King John IV
of Portugal refused to expel Rupert or to acknowledge the Commonwealth of
England. He continued his pursuit when Rupert escaped from Lisbon and sailed
into the Mediterranean. Blake attacked a detachment of Rupert's squadron making
for the neutral Spanish port of Cartagena where one was captured and the rest
wrecked. Finally, with most of his ships destroyed or captured by Blake, Rupert
sailed away into the Atlantic. Both Portugal and Spain were obliged to recognise
the English Commonwealth as a result of Blake's activities.
Blake was back in British waters in
1651. With the assistance of Sir George Ayscue, he captured the Royalist base on
the Isles of Scilly in May 1651, from where Sir John Grenville had been running
an effective privateering campaign against Commonwealth shipping. In October,
Blake attacked Sir George Carteret's stronghold at Elizabeth Castle on Jersey,
which surrendered in December after a fifty-day siege.
In 1652, the first Anglo-Dutch War
broke out. Before war had officially been declared, a Dutch fleet of forty-two
ships commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp appeared off the anchorage
in the Downs. With only twelve ships, Blake engaged the Dutch near Dover after
Tromp provocatively refused to make the conventional salute of lowering his flag
to the English general-at-sea. The Dutch withdrew after a five-hour fight. In
July 1652, Blake sailed into the North Sea to disperse the Dutch fishery fleet.
Tromp was sent to oppose him, but the Dutch fleet was scattered in a violent
storm. As well as the Dutch war, the English Commonwealth was engaged in an
undeclared war against France. Early in September 1652, Blake destroyed a French
supply convoy on its way to relieve the siege of Dunkirk, which resulted in the
surrender of Dunkirk to the Spanish. Blake's intervention forced France to
officially recognise the Commonwealth by the end of the year. On 28 September,
Blake defeated Vice-Admiral de With's fleet off the Kentish Knock, then chased
the Dutch for two days before they took refuge in Goerée.
Blake suffered a setback at the end
of November 1652 when Tromp appeared with eighty warships near the Downs
anchorage, determined to keep the Channel open for Dutch trade. The Council of
State had over-estimated the significance of the victory at Kentish Knock and
dispersed the fleet, leaving Blake with only about forty ships to defend the
Channel. Rather than risk becoming trapped in the Downs, Blake risked a battle
with Tromp but was defeated off Dungeness. Disheartened by his defeat, Blake
offered his resignation, which was refused. Instead, the government ordered a
thorough review of naval tactics and administration which resulted in the
issuing of the first official Articles of War and Fighting Instructions to naval
commanders.
The fleet was refitted and put to
sea again in February 1653 when Blake clashed with Tromp in the three-day
running battle of Portland. Blake suffered a leg wound during the battle from
which he never fully recovered but his victory over the Dutch re-established
English control of the Channel. In June 1653, Monck and Deane engaged with Tromp
at the Gabbard. Deane was killed in the early stages of the battle but the
timely arrival of Blake's squadron ensured an English victory. Ill-health
compelled Blake to return to England before the final battle of the First
Anglo-Dutch War at Scheveningen in July 1653, during which Tromp was
killed.
After a period of retirement and
recuperation, Blake sailed for the Mediterranean in October 1654 on an
expedition intended to bolster the prestige of Cromwell's Protectorate with a
display of naval strength. Blake disrupted a French attack on the Spanish
province of Naples then went to extract compensation from the corsair states
that raided European commerce and territory for plunder and slaves. When the Dey
of Tunis refused to co-operate, Blake's ships bombarded the fort at Porto Farina
in Tunisia, destroying the shore batteries and burning an Ottoman squadron in
the harbour — the first time that naval gunnery had successfully destroyed
shore-based defences.
By the time Blake returned to
England in October 1655, the Anglo-Spanish war had broken out. Blake sailed from
Portsmouth against the Spaniards in March 1656 with a fleet of forty-eight
ships. He spent a year cruising off the coast of Spain and the eastern Atlantic.
Blake's blockade of the port of Cadiz allowed Captain Richard Stayner to capture
part of the homeward-bound Spanish plate fleet from the West Indies — said to be
worth nearly two million pounds. For the first time in naval history, Blake kept
the fleet at sea throughout an entire winter in order to maintain the
blockade.
Blake won his greatest victory in
April 1657 when he attacked another Spanish treasure fleet which had docked in
the strongly-defended harbour of Santa Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
In a similar manoeuvre to the attack on Porto Farina in 1655, Blake braved the
shore batteries and sailed his fleet into Santa Cruz harbour. The guns of the
Spanish forts were silenced with a naval bombardment, and every one of the
Spanish ships in the harbour was destroyed without the loss of a single English
ship. Blake's victory resounded around Europe, making the Protectorate navy
feared and respected everywhere.
Obliged by his failing health to
return to England, Blake's squadron was within sight of Plymouth, where a hero's
welcome was planned for him, when he died on 7 August 1657 aboard his flagship
the George. He was buried at Westminster Abbey after a state funeral attended by
Protector Cromwell and the whole Council of State. After the Restoration,
Charles II ordered Blake's body to be removed from the Abbey along with other
prominent Parliamentarians and reburied in the churchyard of St Margaret's. A
stained glass window depicting scenes from Blake's life was unveiled in St
Margaret's in 1888, and a stone memorial was erected in Westminster Abbey in
1945."