File:Admiral Sir John Jennings (1664-1743) RMG RP6259.jpg

A full-length portrait to the right showing Jennings in a puce velvet coat and breeches with stockings of a similar colour and black shoes. He wears a fair full-bottomed wig. His right hand, in a white glove, holds the pair and rests on a gold tasselled cane with his hat under his arm; his left hand is tuicked into the front of his coat. In the left background there is a broken column, while a three-decker in action with white flag at the mainmast is to the right. Inscribed: 'Sir John Jennings Knt'. John Jennings commanded the 'Kent', 70 guns, on Rooke's expedition to Cadiz in 1702, and which was one of the ships that destroyed the Franco-Spanish fleet in Vigo Bay. In 1704 while serving on the 'St George', 96 guns, he played a conspicuous part in the action with the French off Malaga, for which he was knighted. Jennings was regarded as one of the greatest seamen of his age, despite having few opportunities to distinguish himself as a fighting fleet commander. As a vice-admiral and later Admiral of the White he was in command at Lisbon, 1708-10, was commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean in 1713 and a Lord of the Admiralty, 1714-27. In 1720 he was appointed Ranger of Greenwich Park and Governor of Greenwich Hospital, the last man to combine the posts and live in the Queen's House although he was occasionally at sea until 1727. In 1714 the Hospital bought an 11-ton block of marble taken from the French by Rooke, reportedly for a statue of William III which was never made, and in 1735 Jennings personally paid Rysbrack £400 to carve it into a statue of George II. This was installed that year in the Grand Square, where it remains although now badly eroded. Jennings was the Hospital's longest-serving Governor and died in office in 1743.