Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) was a London-born naval administrator and diarist. He became Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board in 1660 and later rose to Chief Secretary to the Admiralty, helping professionalise the Royal Navy.

From 1660–1669 he kept a diary recording the Restoration court, the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666, until failing eyesight stopped him. He was President of the Royal Society from 1684 to 1686.