Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Fanshawe, Edward Gennys
FANSHAWE, Sir EDWARD GENNYS (1814–1906), admiral, born at Stoke, Devonport, on 27 Nov. 1814, was eldest surviving son of General Sir Edward Fanshawe (1785–1858), R.E., and was grandson of Robert Fanshawe, who, after commanding with distinction the Monmouth in Byron's action off Grenada in 1779 and the Namur on 12 April 1782, was commissioner of the navy at Devonport, where he died in 1823. His mother was Frances, daughter of Sir Hew Whitefoord Dalrymple [q. v.], of whose services at Gibraltar and in Portugal in 1808 Fanshawe published (1895) a critical account. He entered the navy in 1828, and was promoted to be lieutenant in 1835. He was then in November appointed to the Hastings, in which, and afterwards in the Magicienne, he served on the home and Lisbon stations. During the greater part of 1838 he was flag lieutenant to Rear-admiral Bouverie, the superintendent of Portsmouth dockyard, and in November was appointed to the Daphne corvette, at first off Lisbon, whence he went out to the Mediterranean, where he took part in the reduction of Acre and the other operations on the coast of Syria in 1840. On 28 Aug. 1841 Fanshawe was promoted to the rank of commander, and in September 1844 went out to the East Indies in command of the Cruiser. His conduct in command of the boats at the reduction of a pirate stronghold in Borneo won for him his promotion to captain on 7 Sept. 1845. In the Russian war of 1854-6 he commanded the Cossack, and afterwards the Hastings in the Baltic and in the Channel; from May 1856 to March 1859 the Centurion in the Mediterranean; from June 1859 to April 1861 the Trafalgar in the Channel, and from 1 April 1861 he was superintendent of Chatham dockyard. In November 1863 he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and in 1865 was nominated a lord of the admiralty. From 1868 to 1870 he was superintendent at Malta dockyard, with his flag in the Hibernia. On 1 April he became vice-admiral, and in 1871 was nominated a C.B. From 1870 to 1873 he was commander-in-chief on the North American station; during 1875-8 was president of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, in succession to Sir Cooper Key; and during 1878-9 was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. On 27 Nov. 1879, his sixty-fifth birthday, he was placed on the retired list. In 1881 he was nominated a K.C.B., and at Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887 was advanced to G.C.B. He continued to take an active interest in naval questions, serving as vice-president or member of council of the Navy Records Society till shortly before his death. He died on the anniversary of Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1906. He married on 11 May 1843 Jane (d. 1900), sister of Edward, Viscount Cardwell [q. v.], and had issue four sons. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Dalrymple Fanshawe, G.C.B., is his third son.
[Royal Naval List; O'Byrne's Naval Biographical Dict.; Burke's Landed Gentry; The Times, 23 Oct. 1906; Clowes, Royal Navy, vi. and vii. 1901–3; information from Sir Arthur Fanshawe.]