Edward Fanshawe

For the Army officer of the same name, see Edward Fanshawe (British Army officer)

Admiral Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe, GCB (27 November 1814 – 21 October 1906) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

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. Fanshawe joined the Royal Navy in 1828. During the Oriental Crisis of 1840 he took part in the capture of Acre. He was subsequently given command of HMS Cruiser and then HMS Daphne.

He took part in the Crimean War as Captain of HMS Cossack. Later he commanded HMS Hastings, HMS Centurion and then HMS Trafalgar. He suffered some health problems from the 1850s, which curtailed his Mediterranean command of the HMS Centurion.

He was made Superintendent of Chatham Dockyard in 1861, Third Naval Lord in 1865 and Superintendent of Malta Dockyard in 1868. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, North American Station in 1870, Admiral President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1875 and Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth 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, where he died on Trafalgar Day 1906.

Family

"Ancient tower at Cloyne." Painted by Fanshawe in 1856.

Fanshawe's marriage to Jane Cardwell took place in early 1843; their four sons included Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Dalrymple Fanshawe, whose son Guy also became a Royal Naval Captain. He also had a daughter, Alice. Wis wife, Jane, was the sister of Edward (later Lord) Cardwell, a notable politician and, as Secretary of State for War under William Gladstone in the 1860s, instigator of the 'Cardwell Reforms' of the British Army.

Further reading

• Admiral Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe GCB, published 1904, edited by Alice Fanshawe and illustrated with Edward Fanshawe's own drawings
• Albums of over 100 drawings coving his Pacific voyage in the Daphne and the other later activities, mainly in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean with some of his holiday drawings in Scotland and Switzerland from 1843 to 1883, held by the National Maritime Museum

See also

• O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). " Fanshawe, Edward Gennys".  A Naval Biographical Dictionary. John Murray. Wikisource. 

References

Military offices
Preceded by Charles Frederick	Third Naval Lord 1865–1866	Succeeded by Henry Seymour
Preceded by Henry Kellett	Admiral Superintendent, Malta Dockyard 1868–1870	Succeeded by Astley Key
Preceded by Sir George Wellesley	Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station 1870–1873	Succeeded by Sir George Wellesley
Preceded by Sir Astley Key	President, Royal Naval College, Greenwich 1875–1878	Succeeded by Sir Charles Shadwell
Preceded by Sir George Elliot	Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth 1878–1879	Succeeded by Sir Alfred Ryder