# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Strode, Edward Chetham

Layout 4
​STRODE, formerly CHETHAM, K.C.B., K.C.H. (Rear-Admiral of the White, 1841. f-p. 31; h-p. 30.)
Sir Edward Chetham Strode, born 5 July, 1775, is fourth son of the late Thos. Chetham, Esq., of Mellor Hall, co. Derby, by Anne, daughter of Edw. Strode, Esq., of Southhill, co. Somerset, and sister of the late Colonel John Strode, who commanded the Supplementary Somerset Militia and the Bath Volunteers, and was a Deputy-Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for co. Somerset. Sir Edward assumed in 1845 the additional surname and arms of Strode on inheriting the estate of the latter gentleman, which, since his decease in 1807, had devolved in succession on Thomas, Richard, and Randle Chetham (Sir Edward’s elder brothers), all of whom died issueless. His youngest brother, John Chetham, was a Colonel in the Army.
This officer entered the Navy, 29 April, 1786, on board the Elizabeth 74, Capt. Bourmaster, lying at Portsmouth, where he seryed for about two years. In May, 1789, he became Midshipman of the Centurion 50, Capt. Wm. Albany Otway, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Philip Affleck. at Jamaica; and while on that station he was actively employed at the different French posts in St. Domingo in endeavouring to suppress a formidable insurrection among the negroes. His conduct on one occasion, in capturing two marines who had deserted from the dockyard at Port Royal, was such that the Admiral would on the instant have promoted him, had he served the time necessary to qualify him for the receipt of a commission. On the paying off of the Centurion he was received, in Sept. 1792, on board the Duke 98, flag-ship at Portsmouth of Lord Hood; by whom, in the course of the following month, he was placed under the late Vice-Admiral Joseph Hanwell in the Scout sloop. In Dec. 1793, being then in the Mediterranean, he rejoined Lord Hood in the Victory 100; and he was afforded an opportunity, thus, of assisting at the evacuation of Toulon, and at the sieges of St. Fiorenzo, Sastia, and Calvi, in the island of Corsica. On 18 Aug. 1794 he was made Lieutenant into the Agamemnon 64, commanded by the heroic Nelson; under whom we find him, 13 March, 1795, acting a part in a warm action with the Ça Ira 80, and, on the following day, present at the capture, near Genoa, of the same ship and of the Censeur 74, by the fleet under Vice-Admiral Hotham. In the ensuing July he was under the necessity, from the effects of a wound, of returning to England. His next appointments were, 3 Nov. 1795 and 7 Nov. 1798, to the Defiance 74, Capt. ​Theophilus Jones, and Seine of 48 guns and 281 men, Capt. David Milne. In the former ship, one of those involved in the Spithead mutiny, he was for three years employed in the Channel; and in the Seine, after serving off the coast of Africa, be contributed as Senior Lieutenant, 21 Aug. 1800, to the capture, in the Mona Passage, of La Vengeance French frigate of 52 guns and 326 men, an achievement which was the result of a brilliant action of two hours and a half, attended with a loss to the Seine of 13 killed and 29 wounded, and to her opponent of more than twice that number. “To my First-Lieutenant Mr. Chetham,” writes Capt. Milne, in his public letter addressed on the occasion to Lord Hugh Seymour, the Commander-in-Chief, “I am greatly indebted for his cool and steady behaviour, and for the amazing fire kept up from the main-deck, which nothing could surpass.” As soon, therefore, as the official account of this affair reached the Admiralty, Mr. Chetham was advanced to the rank of Commander by a commission bearing date 7 Nov. 1800; but he did not succeed in procuring further employment until 20 April, 1804; when he at length obtained an appointment to the Sally armed ship. In April, 1807, up to which period he had been chiefly engaged in affording protection to the trade in the North Sea and Baltic, he entered the Vistula on his own responsibility, with the Charles hired armed brig under his orders, for the purpose of co-operating in the defence of Danzig, then besieged by the French army under Marshal Lefebvre. While on this service he volunteered to defend the entrance into Fairwater haven, which had been previously attacked. He also, on 17 April, made a desperate attempt to open a communication between Danzig and Fort Weeickselmunde, and for this purpose he was for two hours and a half engaged with upwards of 2000 French troops, who had strongly entrenched themselves at the Great Hollands, a position on the Nehrung, where they were further sheltered by the ruins of some houses lately burnt, and supported by 3 pieces of artillery, as likewise by a small battery at Legan, on the opposite bank of the river. Although his valour was not crowned with the success it deserved, we may mention, as elucidating the nature of the conflict, that the enemy sustained a loss of more than 400 killed and wounded, and that the Sally, at the end of the period stated, had upwards of 1000 musket-balls sticking in her larboard side, that her larboard guns were all disabled, that her masts, sails, and rigging were much damaged, and that half her crew, including the First-Lieutenant, Mr. Jas. Edwards Eastman, were wounded. The conduct of Capt. Chetham on this occasion procured him a most complimentary address from General Kalkreuth, the Prussian Commander-in-Chief at Danzig, who was an eye-witness of the whole proceeding. On 12 May the assistance he sought to render to General Kaminsky in an endeavour made by that officer to fight his way from Fort Weeickselmunde to Danzig caused his name to be mentioned in very flattering terms to the Emperor Alexander. About this period he received orders to proceed to Elsineur, and take charge of a convoy thence to England; but at the solicitation of General Kaminsky he was induced to remain in Fairwater – a measure which the Admiralty approved. He ultimately, with the aid of Capt. Reuben Cailland Mangin of the Valorous praam, brought off Colonel Schuler and the garrison of Weeickselmunde at the very moment that place was about to be occupied by an overwhelming division of the French army; and on 13 Oct. 1807, as a reward for the services we have here detailed, particularly for his gallantry on 17 April, he was advanced (he had been placed in command 22 Sept. preceding of the Nautilus sloop at Chatham) to Post-rahk. Before he left the Sally Capt. Chetham, who had had charge of a small squadron in the Vistula, repaired to Pillau, and had the gratification, while there, of receiving the personal thanks of the King of Prussia. His last appointments were – 7 June, 1809, pro tem, to the Illustrious 74, in which ship (until superseded, 9 Aug. following, by her proper commander, Capt. Wm. Robt. Broughton) he took an active part in the operations connected with the expedition to the Scheldt, and was employed in landing troops and artillery – 13 June, 1810 (on his recovery from the Walcheren fever, after eight months of suffering), to the Leyden 64, armée en flûte – 7 May, 1812, to the Hamadryad 36 – 1 May, 1816, to the Leander 50 – 17 May, 1833, for one year and 10 months, to the Talavera 74, on the Lisbon and Mediterranean stations – and, 5 April, 1838, to the Superintendentship of Haslar Hospital and the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard. While commanding the Leyden, in which ship he was employed in conveying troops to and from England, Lisbon, and the Mediterranean, Capt. Chetham was once, when becalmed within gunshot of the Catalonian shore, warmly engaged with the enemy’s batteries and flotilla in the Straits of Messina. In the Hamadryad he was at first, for two months, engaged in watching the harbour of Cherbourg. He next, during the latter part of 1812, commanded a small detached squadron in the Baltic; on the evening of 28 Feb. 1813 he sank a French lugger off Beachy Head; he was the senior officer, throughout the whole of the ensuing season, of a light squadron stationed in the Sleeve; he captured, 12 Dec. following, the Abigail Danish national cutter with a cargo of naval stores from Frederickswarn bound to Copenhagen; and when afterwards on the Newfoundland station he towed the Paragon, a dismasted merchant-ship, with a valuable cargo, into Halifax, and received in consequence the public thanks of the merchants to whom she was consigned. In the Leander, having volunteered to accompany the expedition against Algiers, he anchored, on the memorable 27 Aug. 1816, close ahead of the Queen Charlotte, Lord Exmouth’s flagship; and on that day the Leander, so prominent was the part she took, expended, we are told, 22,800 pounds of gunpowder, 4116 round shot, and an ample proportion of grape and canister, and sustained a loss, besides being much cut up, of 17 men killed and 118 wounded. She afterwards, until paid off, in July, 1819, served as flag-ship to Sir David Milne on the Halifax station. Capt. Chetham resigned his appointments at Haslar, &c., on attaining Flag-rank 23 Nov. 1841; and has since been on half-pay. He was nominated a C.B. 8 Dec. 1815; a K.C.H. 1 Jan. 1837; and a K.C.B. 8 May, 1845. He received the honour of Knighthood 1 March, 1837.
Sir Edw. Chetham Strode married, 28 June, 1810, Margaret Kezia, third daughter of Peter Dean, Esq., of the Bahamas, and by that lady, who died U April, 1844, has issue three sons and six daughters. Two of the former, Augustus and Frederick Thomas, are Lieutenants R.N.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1800, p. 1257.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 749.
* ↑ The Hamadryad was paid off 7 Feb. 1816, and was shortly afterwards broken up in consequence of the damage she had recently sustained in a violent hurricane.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1816, p. 1798.