Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick William Richards GCB (30 November 1833 – 28 September 1912) was a Royal Navy officer. He commanded a paddle-sloop during the Second Opium War in 1860 and, as senior officer on the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, he landed on the coast of East Africa with a small naval brigade which he led at the Battle of Gingindlovu and the Siege of Eshowe in April 1879 during the Anglo–Zulu War. He took part in the Battle of Laing's Nek in January 1881 during the First Boer War and, as Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station, he organized and equipped a naval brigade to support the British advance up the Irrawaddy River in November 1885 during the Third Anglo-Burmese War. He went on to be First Naval Lord and in that role led a huge shipbuildin