Charles Bethune

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

Early life

Born 27 Decemnber 1802 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.

Naval career Bethune served with the Royal Navy from the age of 13, joining his first ship HMS Northumberland in 1815. in Australasia and the Far East from 1836 to 1842. He reported the Conway Reef in 1838.

He served in the First Opium War operating on the Chinese coast.

In 1846 he joined the Council of the newly formed Hakluyt Society, for which he subsequently edited two volumes. The first edited volume, written by Sir John Hawkins, was published in 1847. The second edited volume, written by Antonio Galvano, was published in 1862. In 1851, on the death in India of his elder brother John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, he became 24th Laird of Balfour, part of Clan Bethune in Fife. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Family In 1846, he had married Frances Cecilia (1819–1888), only child of Henry Edward Staples, and they had six children. His eldest son was Charles Congalton. Of his other sons, #2 Edward Cecil Bethune (1855–1930) became a Lieutenant-General in the British Army, #2 Henry Leonard Drinkwater Bethune (1858–1939) became a captain in the Royal Navy, and #3 Francis John Brownlow Bethune (1860–1954) became a King's Counsel in Australia. His eldest daughter, Mary Frances Drinkwater Bethune (1847–1929), in 1867 married John George Frederick Hope-Wallace (1839–1900), son of the Honourable James Hope and his wife Lady Mary Frances Nugent. Mary Frances Drinkwater Bethune had seven children.