Lenton
Character Profile[edit]
| Name: | Admiral Lenton |
| Date of Birth: | |
| Service: | Aerial Corps |
| Rank: | Admiral |
| Nationality: | British |
| Billets: | Dover covert, captain to Obversaria, Edinburgh covert, Admiral |
Biography[edit]
Lenton, an older man with sparse grey hair and a somewhat brusque manner, was Obversaria's captain for forty years. By 1805, when Temeraire and Laurence joined the Aerial Corps, he held the post of commander-in-chief of the Channel Division and Admiral at the Dover covert.
Lenton had little patience with "groundlings" who, if they managed to get it through their heads at all that dragons were not brute beasts, then expected instead that dragons would behave just like humans and follow military discipline.
Despite his brusque manner, Lenton appeared to care deeply for the dragons and officers under his command - even if he sometimes treated the latter as if they were the former. For example, after Lily's formation was attacked by the French while on patrol - an attack in which Lily was seriously injured and Maximus, Messoria and Immortalis painfully so - Lenton found the formation's captains in the senior officers' dining room and greeted them with, "Here you all are, then; eating, I hope?" Since injured dragons generally eat hungrily unless, like Lily, injured quite seriously, Lenton's greeting sounds as if he was using the same measure to the gauge the captains' well-being.
When the Admiralty ordered Temeraire and Laurence separated to meet the demands of the Chinese embassy led by Prince Yongxing - an order which Temeraire flagrantly violated - Lenton was sympathetic towards them, remarking to Laurence that the situation had been brutally handled and that he himself would have run mad a good deal sooner.
On the other hand, when Levitas was dying and Laurence found his captain, Rankin, sitting in the officers' club drinking wine with Lenton and a couple of scout captains, Lenton chose to allow Laurence to physically drag Rankin out of the room after Laurence informed them all of Levitas' state. Afterwards, he accepted Laurence's recommendation of Hollin as captain for a Winchester about to hatch in Chatham rather than see the hatchling go to Rankin.
Obversaria died with much suffering in the dragon plague in 1806. By the end, she did not even know Lenton, who had taken her out of the shell with his own hands. Afterwards, Lenton's health rapidly declined. Jane Roland told Laurence that he held on admirably for three weeks after Observaria's death but then was found on the floor of his quarters in an apoplexy (stroke). He could not speak properly and was reassigned to the quieter post at the Edinburgh covert. Roland was made Admiral at Dover in his stead.
