Charles Bethune

Charles Bethune
Birth name	Charles Ramsay Drinkwater Bethune
Born	27 December 1802 Little Ealing, Middlesex
Died	14 February 1884 (aged 81) Queensberry Place, South Kensington
Buried at	Brompton Cemetery, London
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1815 - 1870
Rank	Admiral
Commands held	HMS Conway
Battles/wars	First Opium War
Awards	Companion of the Bath

Charles Ramsay Drinkwater Bethune CB (27 December 1802 – 14 February 1884)^[1] was a British officer of the Royal Navy. He rose to the rank of Admiral during his career.^[2]

Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London

Early Life

Born at Little Ealing, Middlesex, the son of Colonel John Drinkwater and Eleanor Congalton, he assumed the name of Bethune in 1837, when his mother inherited the estates of her brother, George Congalton-Bethune.

Military Career

Bethune served with the Royal Navy from the age of 13 and commanded HMS Conway ^[3] in Australasia and the Far East from 1836-42. He reported the Conway Reef in 1838. He served in the First Opium War and was appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1841, for his services.

In 1845 he was sent to Borneo by the Admiralty to report on the best location for a British base against piracy. In the course of this mission he painted a number of watercolour views in Sarawak which were published in 1847 in James Augustus St. John's ^[4] Views in the Eastern Archipelago.

In 1846, he married Frances Cecelia, only child of Henry E. Stables of Park Hill, Clapham, Surrey. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

References

1. ^ http://www.thepeerage.com/p5507.htm#i55063 The peerage
2. ^ http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=141] Naval biography
3. ^ http://www.hmsconway.org/history_first.html
4. ^ http://www.scribd.com/doc/21141187/Views-in-the-Eastern-Archipelago

Persondata
Name	Bethune, Charles
Alternative names	Drinkwater Bethune
Short description
Date of birth	27 December 1802
Place of birth	Little Ealing, Middlesex
Date of death	14 February 1884
Place of death