# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Warde, Charles

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​WARDE, K.H. (Captain, 1815. f-p.,17; h-p., 32.)
Charles Warde, born 13 Sept. 1786, is second son of General Geo. Warde, of Woodland Castle, near Swansea, by Charlotte, only daughter of Spencer Madan, D.D., successively Bishop of Bristol and Peterborough, and niece of the first Marquess Cornwallis and the late Admiral Hon. Wm. Cornwallis, G.C.B. He is member of a family which has been for centuries seated in the neighbourhood of Pontefraot, co. York; one of whom was Lord Mayor of London about the end of the seventeenth century.
This officer entered the Navy, in the summer of 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol. (under the auspices of the late Admiral Sir John Colpoys), on board the Northumberland 74, Capt. Geo. Martin, with whom he continued employed as Midshipman until Sept. 1802. At first he was stationed off Cadiz, and next in various parts of the Mediterranean; where he served at the blockade of Malta until its surrender, witnessed the capture, in 1800, of the Généreux 74 and Diane frigate, and took part in the operations of 1801 in Egypt. He was also present at the reduction of Fort St. Elmo, near Naples, and was at other times often in action with the enemy. In Oct. 1802 he joined the Immortalité 36, Capt. Edw. W. C. R. Owen, stationed in the Downs; and on the renewal of hostilities in 1803 he was there afforded an opportunity of seeing much boat-service and of aiding at the capture of several of the Boulogne flotilla. When the war first broke out the Immortalité was lying at Long Reach, in the river Thames. Hands being wanted, a boat was sent under the command of a Lieutenant, Spear, in company with whom was Mr. Warde, to impress some out of the Dorsetshire East Indiaman: a scuffle took place; Mr. Spear and another were wounded, and 2 of the Indiaman’s people killed. The result was a coroner’s inquest which brought a verdict of wilful murder against the Lieutenant; who however, on being tried at Maidstone, was declared not guilty, upon the ground that he had acted only in self-defence. In 1803-4 Mr. Warde successively joined the Colossus 74 and Glory and Barfleur 98’s, commanded in the Channel by his friend, Capt. Martin. In the Glory he was for a time under the flag of his grand-uncle Admiral Cornwallis; whose good opinion, we learn, he soon riveted. Of the Barfleur he was nominated, after having passed a creditable examination, Acting-Lieutenant. He was confirmed by the Admiralty 13 Feb. 1805; and on being in the following summer appointed to the Druid 32, Capts. Philip Bowes Vere Broke and Hon. John Astley Bennet, he proceeded on a ​cruize off the coast of Ireland, where he contributed, we find, to the capture, among other vessels, of the Prince Murat privateer of 18 guns and 127 men and Pandour national brig of 18 guns and 114 men. After serving for nine months in the Centaur 74, as Flag-Lieutenant of Sir Sam. Hood, who had been sent with a squadron to cruize among the Western Islands, Mr. Warde sailed in the Recruit sloop, Capt. Hon. Warwick Lake, for the West Indies. On his arrival he was received by Sir Alex. Cochrane (to whom also he soon became Flag-Lieutenant) on board the Belleisle 74. He beheld in that ship the surrender of the Danish islands of St. Thomas and Ste. Croix; and in June, 1808, he was promoted by the Commander-in-Chief into the Hippomenes 18, at Barbadoes. He had been made Commander by the Admiralty, 29 April preceding, into the Julia 16; but before he could receive intelligence of the event he had been ordered in the Hippomenes with convoy to England. This was a source of mortification to Capt. Warde, as the latter was old and defective, and the Julia perfectly new. Having paid the Hippomenes off about Sept. 1808, he remained thenceforward unemployed until appointed 9 June, 1810, to the Banterer 14; which vessel, although he attained Post-rank 18 Sept. 1815, he continued to command until July, 1816. During the three first years he was employed under Commodore E. W. C. R. Owen on the harassing and dangerous service of blockading the entrance of the Scheldt; and in March, 1814, when the Antelope 50, in forcing the Hondt passage, grounded within range of the Flushing batteries he obtained the official notice of her Captain, Sam. Butcher, for exertions he used in endeavouring to rescue her from her perilous position. Subsequently to the grand review held before the allied sovereigns at Spithead, the {sc|Banterer}} was ordered off Brighton to attend upon the Prince Regent. She served next on the Irish station and on the coast of Scotland, and was then ordered to the Mediterranean. In Dec. 1815, having conveyed Lord Exmouth to Civita Vecchia, Capt. Warde accompanied him thence on a diplomatic mission to Rome, returning with his Lordship in the following month to Leghorn. Conceiving that the demands about to be made at this period on the Barbary states might lead to hostilities. Lord Exmouth, who had remarked the discrepancies existing in the various charts of Algiers, directed Capt. Warde to proceed to that place and to take a plan of the sea-defences, and of the soundings round the sea-face of the city and mole, with such secrecy as not to betray either to the Dey, the British Consul, or even his own officers, the least idea of the object he had in view. The manner in which this difficult service was performed excited, we can only add, the expressed admiration of the noble chief. On a subsequent occasion when the Dey, under the penalty of an immediate attack, was required to return within two hours an answer to certain demands made upon him by his lordship, Capt. Warde and his friend Capt. Sam. Geo. Pechell of the Clorinde 40, happening to be on shore at the Consul’s country-house, were seized and carried to the market-place. Their hands, which had been tied behind them, were then released and they were conducted presently before the Dey, who, fearing that his detention of them might be construed into an act of hostility, sent them ultimately off in a small boat to their own ships, with a seaman who had been likewise detained. After visiting different ports for the purpose of collecting freight, the Banterer returned to England and was paid off, as above. Unsuccessful in his efforts to procure further employment Capt. Warde accepted the retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
A more extended account than we have been here able to give of Capt. Warde’s services before Algiers may be found in Ostler’s ‘Life of Exmouth.’ On the attention of his late Majesty William IV. being drawn to them by his old Captain, Sir Edw, Owen, he was pleased to confer on him, 1 Jan. 1837, the insignia of a K.H. For some years prior to 1839 the Captain acted as a Magistrate for co. Glamorgan. He married, 15 Jan. 1824, Marianna, eldest daughter of the late Arthur Wm. Gregory, Esq., of Veranda, near Swansea, by whom he has issue three sons and six daughters.