Admiral Sir James Hanway Plumridge KCB MP (13 March 1787 – 29 November 1863) was a British naval officer whose career extended from Trafalgar to the Crimean War, and a Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP).
There are contradictory accounts of Plumridge's origins. He was born at Hertford Street, Mayfair, either the illegitimate son of a man named Preston and a daughter of James Plumridge, or, the son of architect James Plumridge of Littleworth, Berkshire, and the daughter of a man called Hanway of Hertford Street. There is an entry in the baptismal register at St George's, Hanover Square on 1 April 1787 for a James Hanway Plumridge, son of James and Susanna Plumridge.
According to a biography of Jonas Hanway, James Hanway Plumridge was his great-great-nephew, and the son of his great-niece, who was the sister of a man called Hanway Hanway.
He was educated at the Naval Academy in Chelsea.
He entered the Navy on 6 September 1799 as a first-class volunteer aboard the sloop Osprey, employed in home waters under Commander John Watts. From December 1800 he served in the Mediterranean, as midshipman, master's mate, and for a short time as acting-lieutenant; firstly aboard the frigate Leda, under Captains George Johnstone Hope and Robert Honyman, seeing action in the Egyptian campaign under the former. He then followed Captain Hope into the 74s Defence, taking part in the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, and Theseus. Finally, he served aboard Melpomene, under Captain Peter Parker, from where he was promoted to lieutenant on 20 August 1806
On 7 June 1814 Plumridge was promoted to commander in the sloop Crocus, but within a month was transferred to command of Philomel and ordered to the East Indies. There on 29 April 1816, he was appointed acting-captain of the Bombay-built frigate Amphitrite, in which he returned to England by February 1817.
Plumridge was married three times. He married first in 1821, to a daughter of a Rear-Admiral Hart. She died in 1827, and he married for a second time in 1835 to Harriet Agnes, daughter of the Rt Hon Hugh Elliot, by whom he had several children. He was again left a widower in 1845. He married for a third time to Georgina Skinner, the sister of Thomas Skinner, who was the daughter of Lt-Col William Thomas Skinner, RA. He and his third wife also had several children, including Mabel Ann (1861-1931) who married the art critic, novelist and illustrator Haldane MacFall. She survived him, and died in 1897.
His maternal niece Catherine German married Hermann Philipp Rée, and their great-great-great-grandson is the former Prime Minister Rt. Hon. David Cameron.