Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen
Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen, Count of Doggerbank (1 May 1735 – 24 May 1819), was a Dutch naval officer. Having had a good scientific education, Van Kinsbergen was a proponent of fleet modernization and wrote many books about naval organization, discipline and tactics.
Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 May 1735 Doesburg, Dutch Republic |
| Died | 24 May 1819 (aged 84) Apeldoorn, Netherlands |
| Allegiance | Dutch Republic Russian Empire |
| Service/ | Royal Netherlands Navy Imperial Russian Navy |
| Rank | Lieutenant-admiral |
| Battles/wars | Battle of Balaklava (1773) Combat of Sucukkale Battle of Dogger Bank (1781) |
In 1773, he twice defeated an Ottoman fleet while in Russian service. Returning to the Dutch Republic in 1775, he became a Dutch naval hero in 1781, fighting the Royal Navy, and gradually attained the position of commander-in-chief as a lieutenant-admiral. When France conquered the Republic in 1795 he was fired by the new revolutionary regime and prevented from becoming Danish commander-in-chief, but the Kingdom of Holland reinstated him in 1806, in the rank of fleet marshal, and made him a count. He was again degraded by the French Empire in 1810; after the liberation the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1814 honoured him with his old rank of lieutenant-admiral.
Van Kinsbergen, in his later life a very wealthy man, was also noted for his philanthropy, supporting poor relief, naval education, the arts and the sciences.