Admiral Robert Calder (1745–1 September 1818) was a British naval officer who served in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

He was Admiral John Jervis's Captain of the Fleet at the battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797.

In the War of the Third Coalition he was in command of the blockading squadrons off the ports of Rochefort and Ferrol. On 22 July 1805 he encountered a Franco-Spanish fleet of twenty ships commanded by Admiral Villeneuve. The ensuing battle of Cape Finisterre was a serious defeat for the French: fifteen British ships had engaged twenty Franco-Spanish and captured two Spanish. The British losses were 39 officers and men killed and 159 wounded; the allied losses 476 officers and men killed and wounded.

Most importantly, Villeneuve had failed in all his objectives: he had landed no troops in Ireland, and the plan of linking Villeneuve's fleet with the fleet at Brest, driving off the British Channel squadrons, and supporting Napoleon's invasion of Britain came to nothing: the Armée d'Angleterre waited uselessly at Boulogne as before.

The British public and Admiralty did not see the action in that light, however. Calder was relieved of his command, court-martialled, and sentenced to be severely reprimanded for his failure to seek action on 23 and 24 July. He never served at sea again.

References

• William James, Naval History of Great Britain, 1793–1827.