Captain John Miller Adye: From the Battle of the Nile to Napoleon’s Escape

Captain John Miller Adye’s memorial at St Peter & St Paul connects Fareham with two of the most famous episodes of the Napoleonic era: Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile and Napoleon’s escape from Elba.

Adye entered the Royal Navy in the 1790s and became a lieutenant in January 1797. The following year he was serving aboard HMS Vanguard, Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship, at the Battle of the Nile. On 1 August 1798 Nelson’s fleet attacked the French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay, destroying or capturing most of it and dealing a major blow to Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. Adye was wounded during the battle.

He continued his naval career and was promoted commander in 1806. By 1810 he was commanding HMS Partridge, an 18-gun sloop, serving in the Channel, West Indies and European waters.

His most remarkable assignment came in 1815. Napoleon had been defeated and exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, where the British commissioner Sir Neil Campbell was responsible for observing him. Adye’s Partridge was cruising off the island and carried Campbell to the Italian mainland in February.

While Campbell was away, information arrived that Napoleon might attempt to escape. Campbell hurried back aboard Partridge, but light winds delayed the ship. When Adye finally reached Elba on 28 February, Napoleon had already slipped away two nights earlier. Partridge joined the search, but Napoleon reached France and began the dramatic period known as the Hundred Days, which ended at Waterloo.

Later that year Adye was promoted to post-captain, one of the important milestones in a Royal Navy officer’s career. His promotion was dated 18 September 1815.

His career did not last much longer. Captain John Miller Adye died on 10 February 1817, still a relatively young man.

His memorial in Fareham therefore remembers an officer who witnessed extraordinary events at close quarters. He fought and was wounded aboard Nelson’s flagship at the Nile, commanded his own warship during the Napoleonic Wars, and found himself involved in the unsuccessful attempt to intercept Napoleon at the beginning of the Hundred Days.

Few memorials in the church connect Fareham quite so directly with the great events of the Napoleonic age.