George Keith-Elphinstone Keith, viscount, a British admiral, born at Elphinstone, East Lothian, Scotland, Jan. 12, 1746, died at his seat of Tulliallan, Perthshire, March 10, 1823. He was the youngest son of the tenth Baron Elphinstone, and entered the navy at an early age. He received the commission of post captain in 1775, and, in command of the frigate Perseus, participated in the British attack on Bunker Hill, and in the capture of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, in November, 1777. In 1793 he served under Lord Hood at Toulon, and in 1795, as rear admiral of the white, took possession of Cape Town, and subsequently conquered Ceylon, Cochin, Malacca, and the Moluccas. He completed his services in the East by capturing, in August, 1796, off Sal-danha bay, a Dutch squadron, which had been despatched for the recovery of the Cape Colony. Upon his return to England in 1797 he was created an Irish peer as Baron Keith of Stonehaven Marischal. In 1799 he took command of the fleet in the Mediterranean, and in March, 1800, blockaded Genoa, then occupied by a French army under Massena, until its surrender to the Austrians. He subsequently cooperated with Abercrombie in the military operations in Egypt. He continued in active service until after the battle of Waterloo, and for several years held command of the channel fleet as admiral of the white.

It was owing to his disposition of his cruisers along the coast of France that Napoleon was induced to surrender himself a prisoner. In 1814 he was created Viscount Keith of the United Kingdom, having been a baron since 1801. Previous to his elevation to the peerage he was on several occasions a member of the house of commons. His second wife, born in 1762, was the eldest daughter and co-heir of Henry Thrale, the friend of Dr. Johnson, from whom she received her education. She died March 31, 1857. He left no sons, but his title descended to his elder daughter by his first wife, Baroness Keith, wife of Count Fla-haut. (See Flahaut de la Billarderie.)