Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Brace KCB: From Fareham to the Mediterranean
Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Brace was one of the most distinguished naval officers connected with Fareham. He lived at Catisfield Lodge and was buried in the family vault at Fareham after his death in 1843.
Brace was born in 1770 and entered naval service as a boy. His career spanned the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and he rose steadily through the Royal Navy from midshipman to captain and eventually vice-admiral. He served in the East Indies and the Mediterranean and took part in a number of actions against French, Dutch and other enemy vessels.
The most dramatic episode of his career came in 1816, when he commanded HMS Impregnable, a huge 104-gun ship of the line, during the Bombardment of Algiers. The expedition was intended to force the ruler of Algiers to release Christian captives and end the enslavement of Europeans by the Barbary states.
During the fighting, Impregnable became heavily exposed to the Algerian batteries. The ship was struck hundreds of times and suffered around 210 casualties, including about 50 men killed. Brace was criticised afterwards because the ship had anchored in a position which left her particularly vulnerable to enemy fire.
The episode affected his career, although it did not end it. Brace continued in senior naval service, became a rear-admiral in 1830, was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1834, and was promoted vice-admiral in 1838. In 1841 he became Commander-in-Chief at the Nore, one of the Royal Navy’s important home commands.
He died on 26 December 1843 while still serving in that post.
Brace’s story is particularly interesting because it gives us a fuller picture of naval service in the age of Nelson. His career included success, promotion, international honours and senior command, but also a battle in which a serious error had terrible consequences for the men serving under him.
His memorial connection with Fareham therefore preserves the story of a man who spent more than sixty years in the Royal Navy and lived through one of the most important periods in British naval history.
