Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe, (27 November 1814 – 21 October 1906) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer who went on to be

Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Thomas Williams (Royal Navy officer), Si ...

. He was a gifted amateur artist, with much of his work in the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

, London.

Naval career

Born the eldest surviving son of General Sir Edward Fanshawe, and the nephew of Admiral Sir Arthur Fanshawe, Fanshawe was educated at the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth where he came second from the top in a very talented year and was commended for both his artistic and writing ability.''Admiral Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe GCB'', published 1904 Fanshawe joined the

in 1828. During the

Oriental Crisis of 1840 The Oriental Crisis of 1840 was an episode in the Egyptian–Ottoman War in the eastern Mediterranean, triggered by the self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan Muhammad Ali Pasha's aims to establish a personal empire in Ottoman Egypt. Backgr ...

he took part in the capture of

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

. He was subsequently given command of and then . He took part in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

as captain of . Later he commanded , and then . He suffered some health problems from the 1850s, which curtailed his

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

command of HMS ''Centurion''. He was made Superintendent of

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham, Kent, Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham, Kent, Gillingham; at its most extens ...

in 1861, Third Naval Lord in 1865 and Superintendent of

Malta Dockyard Malta Dockyard was an important naval base in the Grand Harbour in Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. The infrastructure which is still in operation is now operated by Palumbo Shipyards. History Pre-1800 The Knights of Malta established dockyard ...

in 1868. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, North American Station in 1870, Admiral President of the

Royal Naval College, Greenwich The Royal Naval College, Greenwich, was a Royal Navy training establishment between 1873 and 1998, providing courses for naval officers. It was the home of the Royal Navy's staff college, which provided advanced training for officers. The equi ...

in 1875 and

in 1878. He retired in 1879. From the early 1850s he and his family lived at Rutland Gate in London. He later moved to 63 Eaton Square and finally to 75 Cromwell Road in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, where he died on Trafalgar Day 1906.

Family

Fanshawe's marriage to Jane Cardwell took place in early 1843; she was the sister of Edward (later Lord) Cardwell, a notable politician and, as

Secretary of State for War The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...

under

William Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he was Prime Minister ...

in the 1860s, instigator of the '

Cardwell Reforms The Cardwell Reforms were a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874 with the support of Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone paid little attentio ...

' of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. They had four sons and a daughter, including: * Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Cardwell Fanshawe, of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

, who married in 1900 Alice Drew, daughter of Colonel George Drew, CB. * Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Dalrymple Fanshawe (1847–1936), whose son Guy Dalrymple Fanshawe also became a Royal Naval

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. * Alice Fanshawe

References

, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Fanshawe, Edward 1814 births 1906 deaths Admiral presidents of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War Military personnel from Plymouth, Devon Lords of the Admiralty Fanshawe family Royal Navy personnel of the Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841)

Naval career

Family

Further reading

See also

References