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Vice Admiral Sir Richard Saunders Dundas, KCB (1802 – 1861) was a British naval officer and was the British First Sea Lord from 1857 to 1858 and again from 1859 until 1861.

The son of Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, he was born on 11 April 1802 and educated at Harrow College and became a captain in the Royal Navy in 1824. He commanded the Volage on the South American Station, 1825, and the Warspite in Australia, 1827. From 1828-1830 he was secretary to his father, who was serving a second term as First Sea Lord. He later served in the Mediterranean, South Africa and the East Indies, including the First Opium War, for his services in which he was awarded a Companion of the Bath in 1841. He was then again (1845-6) Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, this time Lord Haddington, and from 1848 served in the Mediterranean as Captain of HMS Powerful (1884). He became a Rear Admiral in July 1853.

He was a Third Lord of the Admiralty in 1853. On 19 February 1855 he was appointed to the command of the Fleet in the Baltic Sea in succession to Sir Charles Napier. Relations between Napier and the Admiralty had been strained to say the least, and in Dundas they were appointing one of their own, with the requisite diplomatic and management skills. As Napier had before him, Dundas enforced a blockade of Russian ports and his ships raided along the coast of Finland, co-operating also with a French Fleet under Admiral Penaud. Dundas knew he was expected to attack the fortress of Sveaborg, which Napier had declined to do, and duly did so in August. Although he inflicted heavy casualties and some material damage, the fortifications were virtually unaffected and the Anglo-French fleet exhausted its entire ammunition in the attempt. Nevertheless this was judged a success, and Dundas would have continued to command the fleet in 1856 had peace not been negotiated.

He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1856 and was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour and a Vice Admiral in 1858. He served as First Sea Lord from 1857 until 1858 until he was briefly replaced. He served again as First Sea Lord from 1859 until his death. He died, unmarried, of a heart attack at 13 New Street, Spring Gardens, London, on 3 June 1861.

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First Sea Lords of the Royal Navy

Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe • Sir Peter Parker • Prince William, Duke of Clarence • Sir George Cockburn • Sir Thomas Hardy • The Hon. George Heneage Dundas • Charles Adam • Sir Charles Adam • Sir William Parker • Sir Charles Adam • James Whitley Deans Dundas • Hyde Parker • The Hon. Maurice Fitzhardinge Berkeley • William Fanshawe Martin • The Hon. Sir Richard Saunders Dundas • The Hon. Sir Frederick Grey • Sir Sydney Dacres • Sir Alexander Milne • Sir Hastings Yelverton • George Wellesley • Sir Astley Cooper Key • Sir Arthur Acland Hood • Lord John Hay • Sir R. Vesey Hamilton • Sir Anthony Hoskins • Sir Frederick Richards • Lord Walter Kerr • Sir Jackie Fisher • Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson • Sir Francis Bridgeman • Prince Louis of Battenberg • Sir Henry Jackson • Sir John Jellicoe • Sir Rosslyn Wemyss • The Earl Beatty • Sir Charles Madden, Bt • Sir Frederick Field • The Lord Chatfield • Sir Roger Backhouse • Sir Dudley Pound • The Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope • Sir John Cunningham • The Lord Fraser of North Cape • Sir Rhoderick McGrigor • The Earl Mountbatten of Burma • Sir Charles Lambe • Sir Caspar John • Sir David Luce • Sir Varyl Begg • Sir Michael Le Fanu • Sir Peter Hill-Norton • Sir Michael Pollock • Sir Edward Ashmore • Sir Terence Lewin • Sir Henry Leach • Sir John Fieldhouse • Sir William Staveley • Sir Julian Oswald • Sir Benjamin Bathurst • Sir Jock Slater • Sir Michael Boyce • Sir Nigel Essenhigh • Sir Alan West • Sir Jonathon Band •