Charles Marsh Schomberg

Sir Charles Marsh Schomberg (1779, Dublin –1835) was the youngest son of the naval officer Alexander Schomberg and Arabella Susannah Chalmers, and followed his father's profession. Later in life, he also became a colonial governor.

His first naval service was as his father's servant on the yacht of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Thomas Louis on HMS Cumberland and the 74-gun HMS Minotaur. On 30 April 1795 he was promoted to lieutenant, and was transferred to the battle of the Nile and in subsequent operations on the coast of Italy and Spain (commanding her boats on 3 September 1800, under Captain James Hillyar of the corvettes at Barcelona). For his command of the boats during this action he was moved into the Foudroyant (80 guns), serving as Lord Keith's flag lieutenant throughout the Egyptian campaign), and was in August 1801 put in command of order of the Crescent.

On 29 April 1802 he was promoted commander, and captain on 6 April 1803. In the latter post he was appointed to command the 54-gun William Sidney Smith's flag captain on Hibernia (120 guns), travelling with him to Lisbon where Charles - remaining flag captain - moved to command his old ship HMS Foudrayant (from 6 June 1809 to January 1810) and continued to Rio de Janeiro. Smith in January 1809 appointed Charles to the frigate HMS Astraea (36 guns), which he fitted out and sailed to the Cape of Good Hope. From there he was detached as senior officer at Mauritius where, in the Action of 20 May 1811, his ship, two other frigates and a sloop met and defeated a force of three large French frigates bringing reinforcements to Mauritius (unaware of its capture by the British). One French frigate, the Renommée (40 guns), surrendered to Schomberg's ship; one, the Néréide, escaped only to surrender at Tamatave in Madagascar a few days later; and the third, Clorinde, escaped for good.

In April 1813 Schomberg took over command of HMS Nisus (38 guns), sailing to Brazil and from there to Portsmouth as escort to a large merchant convoy, arriving at Spithead in March 1814. On 4 June 1815 he was made a CB. From 1820 to 1824 he commanded Mediterranean, as Sir Graham Moore's flag captain, and from 1828 to 1832 flew a broad pennant in KCH, and also received the order of the Tower and Sword from the prince of Brazil.

In February 1833 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Dominica and died unmarried on 2 January 1835 on board HMS President, flagship of Sir George Cockburn, anchored in the island's Carlisle Bay. He was interred in St Paul's Chapel on the day of his death.

Sources

• DNB entry
• D. Syrett and R. L. DiNardo, The commissioned sea officers of the Royal Navy, 1660–1815, rev. edn, Occasional Publications of the Navy RS, 1 (1994)
• J. Marshall, Royal naval biography, 2/2 (1825), 817
• W. James, The naval history of Great Britain, from the declaration of war by France, in February 1793, to the accession of George IV, in January 1820, [2nd edn], 6 vols. (1826)
• O'Byrne, W. R.O'Byrne, A naval biographical dictionary(1849); repr.(1990); [2nd edn], 2 vols.(1861)
• ‘Capt. Sir C. M. Schomberg’, Gentleman's Magazine, 2nd ser., 4 (1835), 90–91
• P. Mackesy, The war in the Mediterranean, 1803–1810 (1957)

Persondata
Name	Schomberg, Charles Marsh
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Date of birth	1779
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Date of death	1835
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