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 and joined the Royal Navy. He served during the Napoleonic Wars. Later in life, he was appointed the lieutenant-governor of Dominica.

Early career
His first naval service was as his father's servant on the yacht of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, HMS Dorset, under his father's command, and lasted from 1788 to 1793, when he served under Captain Thomas Louis on HMS Cumberland (1774) and the 74-gun HMS Minotaur (1793). On 30 April 1795 he was promoted to lieutenant, and was transferred to the HMS Rattler (1795), but returned to the Minotaur in August 1796, serving on her at 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 HMS Niger (1759), in cutting out two Spanish corvettes at Barcelona). For his command of the boats during this action he was moved into the HMS Foudroyant (1798) (80 guns), serving as Lord Keith's flag lieutenant throughout the Egyptian campaign), and was in August 1801 put in command of HMS Charon (1783) during her part in shipping French PoWs out of Egypt. He was rewarded for all these services with the Turkish order of the Crescent.

Promotions to Commander & Captain
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 HMS Madras. She was stationed at Malta until spring 1807, when she was decommissioned, on which Charles returned to England for the first time in ten years.

In November 1808 Schomberg was appointed to be Sir William Sidney Smith's flag captain on HMS Hibernia (1804) (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 HMS President (1806) (50 guns) but, when the Admiralty sent out another captain for that ship, Charles then returned to England. He arrived in April 1810 and two months later was appointed to the frigate HMS Astraea (1810) (36 guns), which he fitted out and sailed to the Cape of Good Hope. From there he was detached as senior officer at Mauritius.

The Battle of Tamatave
Schomberg had command during the Action of 20 May 1811, when his ship, HMS Astraea, two other frigates HMS Phoebe, HMS Galatea and the brig-sloop HMS Racehorse met and defeated a force of three large French frigates Renommée, Clorinde and Néréide. The French ships were 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.

The Battle of Tamatave marked the end of the final French attempt to operate in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars. Nearly four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.

Later career
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 HMS Rochefort (80 guns) in the Mediterranean, as Sir Graham Moore's flag captain, and from 1828 to 1832 flew a broad pennant in HMS Maidstone (1811) as commodore and commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope. On 21 September 1832 he was made a KCH, and also received the order of the Tower and Sword from the Prince of Brazil.

Appointment as lieutenant-governor of Dominica
In February 1833 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Dominica and died unmarried on 2 January 1835 on board HMS President (1829), 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.