Frederick Chamier

{{Short description|English writer (1796–1870)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = | name = Frederick Chamier | honorific_suffix = | image = Frederick Chamier (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = Chamier in 1838 | birth_name = | other_name = | nickname = | birth_date = 2 November 1796 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1870|10|29|1796|11|02|df=y}} | death_place = St Leonards-on-Sea | burial_place = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = Royal Navy | service_years = 1809–1833 | rank = Captain | unit = | commands = HMS ''Britomart'' | known_for = | battles = {{Tree list}} *Napoleonic Wars **Walcheren Campaign *War of 1812 **Battle of Caulk's Field {{Tree list/end}} | awards = | memorials = | alma_mater = | spouse = {{marriage|Bessie Soane|1831|1870}} | children = | relations = | other_work = Novelist | signature = }} Captain '''Frederick Chamier''' (2 November 1796 – 29 October 1870)<ref name="Chamier2011">{{cite book|author=Frederick Chamier|title=Life of a Sailor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aa9AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT7|date=23 May 2011|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=978-1-78346-873-7|pages=7}}</ref> was an English novelist, autobiographer and naval captain born in London. He was the author of several nautical novels that remained popular through the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Chamier, Frederick |volume=5 |page=825}}</ref>

==Life== Chamier was the son of an Anglo-Indian official, John Ezechial Chamier and his wife Georgiana, daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir William Burnaby.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/ChamiersOfEpsom.html| title=The Chamiers of Epsom| accessdate=2011-07-04}}</ref> The family home was in Grosvenor Place, London.{{r|"van der Voort"}}{{rp|18}}

He entered the Royal Navy in June 1809, joining the frigate {{HMS|Salsette|1805|2}} as a midshipman{{sfn| Laughton |1887}} in time for the Walcheren Campaign.{{r|"van der Voort"}}{{rp|19–20}}{{r|"ODNB"}}

After the campaign the ''Salsette'' was ordered to the Mediterranean and while at Smyrna on 11 April 1810 met with Lord Byron who on hearing the ship was making for Constantinople asked Captain Bathurst for a lift. Byron took a friendly interest in the young Chamier and when the ship stopped en-route at Tenedos within sight of the plains of Troy prevailed on the captain to allow the boy ashore to carry his fowling piece. There Byron sat down on the tomb of Patroclus, and pulled out his copy of Homer and read for his companions. Chamier would become a lifelong devotee, {{r|"van der Voort"}}{{rp|21–22}} and sprinkle his own books in the future with many Byronic quotations.{{r|"van der Voort"}}{{rp|25}} Later in May 1810, Chamier watched Byron on his famous swim across the Hellespont from Europe to Asia at the second attempt.{{r|"Byron"}} He described the episode in his autobiography.{{r|"van der Voort"}}{{rp|22–23}} Once in Constantinople the young midshipman accompanied his captain to various receptions and audiences for Sir Robert Adair with the sultan Mahmud II.{{r|"van der Voort"}}{{rp|23–24}}

Bathurst was promoted in November 1810 to command the 74-gun {{HMS|Fame|1805|2}} and took Chamier with him. Later by April 1811 Chamier went on to serve in the mediterranean on the {{HMS|Arethusa|1781|2}} fighting the slave trade.{{r|"CM"}}{{r|"van der Voort"}}{{rp|26}} This was followed from October 1811 to 1814 on board the {{HMS|Menelaus|1810|2}} under Sir Peter Parker. He was onshore with Parker when the latter was killed at Bellair on 30 August 1814.{{r|"van der Voort"}}

On 6 July 1815 he was promoted lieutenant, and continued service in the Mediterranean, the home station, and the West Indies. From 20 September 1824 to 3 August 1825 he was first lieutenant on the {{HMS|Scylla|1809|2}}.{{r|"HTNC"}}

He was on the West Indies station until 9 August 1826, when he was put briefly in command of the 10-gun brig {{HMS|Britomart|1820|2}} for bringing her home to England in 1827, but thereafter was very soon paid off.{{r|"TMP 14 Oct 1826"}}

Chamier took no further employment and in 1833 was placed on the retired list of the navy, on which he was formally promoted captain on 1 April 1856.{{sfn |Laughton |1887}}

Effectively retired in 1827, he settled down to the life of an Essex county squire,{{r|"TS"}} further dividing his time between his house in Halkin Street, Belgravia, and Paris. His autobiography, ''The Life of a Sailor'', was serialised in ''The Metropolitan Magazine'' in 1831–1832).{{r|"CM"}}

In 1831 he was engaged in editing the translated transcript of Mikhail Zagoskin's novel ''Dmitrich Miloslawsky'' to be issued in England as ''The Young Muscovite; or, The Poles in Russia'', which apparently dated from 1824. The translation had been provided from Moscow by a Russian lady of rank and her two daughters. The book's publication was ceaselessly reported as imminent throughout 1831 and in early 1834. It was intended to publish in three parts, but it was not to appear on London bookshelves until March 1834, and when it did, it was found to have been extensively adapted to acclaim by Chamier.{{r|"TFJ 8 Apr 1831"}}{{r|"TMP 10 Mar 1834"}}

At the tail end of 1831 Chamier lost a considerable sum in a failed venture the premature establishment of ''The Metropolitan Magazine'', his friend Frederick Marryat would make something of it, later that year. Licking his wounds in Paris he met his future wife Bessie Soane in January 1831. The couple wished to marry but Bessie's guardian Sir John Soane refused permission, despite Chamier, on the face of it, being a man of means; his father had left him a legacy of £10,000 and his writing at that stage was earning him £300 a year. The couple clandestinely eloped to Gretna Green. The couple remarried in Esher that April in an unsuccessful bid to placate the family, to no result, and went off to live in Paris From October 1832 till August 1834. Their only child Elizabeth was born there in the January.{{r|"Darley"}}

He also wrote nautical novels somewhat in the style of Marryat, including ''The Unfortunate Man'' (1835), ''Ben Brace, the Last of Nelson's Agamemnons'' (1836), ''The Arethusa'' (1837),{{r|"TMC"}} ''Jack Adams, the Mutineer'' (1838), ''The Spitfire'' (1840), ''Tom Bowling'' (1841), a trilogy ''Count Konigsmark'' (1845){{r|"TMP 1 Oct 1845"}} and ''Jack Malcolm's Log'' (1846). In addition, he continued William James's ''Naval History''{{r|"TS"}} and wrote some books of travel.{{r|"ODNB"}}

Chamier invested heavily in the railways. In 1845 alone was a director of several companies, notably the ''Fampoux and Hazebrouck'',<ref name="TS 8 Oct 1845">{{Cite news |title=The Direct London, Portsmouth, and Chichester, and Direct Portsmouth and Chatham Railway via Reigate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49914293/chamier-railway-director/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Standard |date=8 October 1845 |location=London |page=3}}</ref> the ''Paris and Lyon'',<ref name="TMC 30 Sept 1845">{{Cite news |title=Worcester and Leominster Railway |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49914951/worcester-and-leominster-railway/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Morning Chronicle |date=30 September 1845 |location=London |page=4}}</ref> the ''Cambridge and Lincoln Extension'',<ref name="BMDP">{{Cite news |title=The Direct Lincoln, East Retford, & Sheffield Junction Railway |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49913197/also-the-cambridge-and-lincoln/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, Western Countries and South Wales Advertiser |date=25 October 1845 |location=Bristol |page=3 |quote=Provisional Committee}}</ref> the ruinous ''Northampton and Cambridge'',<ref name="TMC 9 Oct 1845">{{Cite news |title=The Oxford and Salisbury Direct Railway |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49915305/the-oxford-and-salisbury-direct-railway/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Morning Chronicle |date=9 October 1845 |location=London |page=12}}</ref> and the ''Rugby and Worcester''.{{r|"TMP 3 Oct 1845"}}

He had been in Paris during the revolution of February 1848, and published an account of that period under the title ''A Review of the French Revolution of 1848'', in which he depicted the main personages taking part in the events.{{r|"NCWC"}}{{r|"ODNB"}}

Chamier held for some time an official post abroad,{{r|"NCWC"}} but retired to Warrior Square, St Leonards-on-Sea, where he died on 29 October 1870 after a lingering illness, survived by his wife.{{r|"TS"}} The couple are buried in Hastings Cemetery.{{r|"Hastings Cemetery"}} He had married in 1832 Elizabeth, daughter of the late John Soane, of Chelsea, and granddaughter of the celebrated Sir John Soane.{{r|"NCWC"}}. His wife, Elizabeth died in 1879.{{r|"TFJ"}} The couple's only child, Eliza Maria Chamier, first married Captain Frederick Crewe, and on his death married Somerset Gough-Calthorpe, 7th Baron Calthorpe.{{r|"BANP"}}

Frederick Chamier laid claim to being descended from the 17th-century French Huguenot politician Daniel Chamier.

==Reception== Chamier's most popular books were: *''Life of a Sailor'', reprinted six times between 1832 and 1873<ref>A new edition appeared in 2011: ''The life of a sailor: Frederick Chamier'', edited and introduced by Vincent McInerney (Barnsley: Seaforth).</ref> *''Ben Brace'', reprinted eleven times between 1836 and 1905 *''Tom Bowling'', reprinted five times between 1858 and 1905 *''The Spitfire'', reprinted three times between 1840 and 1861

In 1870 ''The Times'' described Chamier as "a veteran novelist, one, indeed, whose sea novels some quarter of a century ago were almost as universally popular as those of Captain Marryat."{{r|"van der Voort"}} Captain Chamier's works were popular on the Continent; some appeared in two or three translations.{{r|"BN"}}

==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em|refs= <ref name="BANP">{{Cite news |title=Marriage Notice |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49908354/somerset-gough-calthorpe-7th-baron/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |agency=Court Journal |publisher=The Bury and Norwich Post |date=14 January 1862 |location=Bury, Suffolk |page=4 |quote=a marriage is arranged between Colonel the Hon. J. Somerset Calthorpe, son of Lord Calthorpe, and grandson of the Duke of Beaufort, and Mrs. Frederick Crewe, only daughter of Captain and Mrs. Frederick Chamier. ''Court Journal''.|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

<ref name="BN">{{Cite news |title=Captain Chamier - Obituary "Belfast News" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49902939/captain-chamier-obituary-belfast/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=Belfast News |date=5 November 1870 |location=Belfast |page=4 |quote=In 1833 he retired from the service and devoted himself to the duties of a country squire in Essex.}}</ref>

<ref name="Byron">{{Cite web |last1=Byron |first1=Lord |title=Lord Byron Letter To Henry Drury, Salsette Frigate, 3 May 1810 |url=https://englishhistory.net/byron/selected-letters/henry-drury-salsette-frigate-3-may-1810/ |website=English History |accessdate=28 April 2020 |date=3 May 1810 |quote=This morning I swam from Sestos to Abydos. The immediate distance is not above a mile, but the current renders it hazardous... this morning being calmer, I succeeded and crossed the ‘broad Hellespont’ in an hour and ten minutes.}}</ref> <ref name="CM">{{Cite news |last1=Chamier |title=A Squall on the African Coast. (From Captain Chamier's ''Life of a Sailor'') |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49700214/captain-chamiers-life-of-a-sailor/ |accessdate=28 April 2020 |publisher=The Caledonian Mercury |date=11 May 1833 |location=Edinburgh |page=4}}</ref> <ref name="Darley">{{cite book |last1=Darley |first1=Gillian |title=John Soane: An Accidental Romantic |date=1999 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0300081650 |page=313 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OPimTe7hArkC&pg=PA313 |accessdate=1 May 2020}}</ref>

<ref name="Hastings Cemetery">{{Cite web |title=Frederick Chamier AW G20/21 |url=https://friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk/chamier.html |website=Friends of Hastings Cemetery |accessdate=30 April 2020}}</ref>

<ref name="HTNC">{{Cite news |last1= |title=Scylla |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49919202/hms-scylla/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle |date=31 October 1891 |location=Portsmouth |page=8 |quote=The first (Scylla), an 18-gun sloop, built in 1809, was finally paid off in 1845, and soon afterwards disposed of. Her first lieutenant, from September 20th, 1824, to August 3rd, 1825, was Frederick Chamier, author of ''Ben Brace''.}}</ref>

<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite web |last1=Laughton |first1=J.K. |last2=Morriss |first2=Roger |title=Chamier, Frederick |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5090 |website=Oxford DNB |publisher=Oxford University Press |accessdate=28 April 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924155853/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5090 |archivedate=24 September 2015 |date=2004}} [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/5090 Alt URL]</ref> <ref name="NCWC">{{cite news |title=Obituary Notice - Frederick Chamier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49901016/obituary-notice-frederick-chamier/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Newcastle Weekly Courant |date=4 November 1870 |location=Newcastle |page=3 |quote=The great success winch attended Marryatt's sea novels induced Capt Chamier to enter on the same literary career, which he did with some success.}}</ref>

<ref name="TFJ">{{Cite news |title=Death of Elizabeth Chamier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49910671/death-of-elizabeth-chamier/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Freeman's Journal |date=27 October 1879 |location=Dublin}}</ref>

<ref name="TFJ 8 Apr 1831">{{Cite news |title=Historical Novel – The Young Muscovite; or, The Poles in Russia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49927368/historical-novel-the-young/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Freeman's Journal |date=8 April 1831 |location=Dublin |page=1 |format=Advertisement |quote=In the Press, and will be published in the course of the ensuing month}}</ref>

<ref name="TMC">{{Cite news |last1= |title=Captain Chamier's New Naval Story, ''The Arethusa'' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49699511/hms-arethusa-features-in-an-1837-novel/ |accessdate=28 April 2020 |agency=Spectator |publisher=The Morning Chronicle |date=17 May 1837 |location=London |page=4}}</ref>

<ref name="TMP 14 Oct 1826">{{Cite news |title=Ship News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49917302/captain-frederick-chamier-appointed-to/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |agency=Plymouth Journal, 11 October 1826 |publisher=The Morning Post |date=14 October 1826 |page=4 |quote=Captain Frederick Chamier is appointed to the Britomart.}}</ref>

<ref name="TMP 10 Mar 1834">{{Cite news |last1= |title=Literature – The Young Muscovite; or, The Poles in Russia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49926679/literature-the-young-muscovite-or/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Morning Post |date=10 March 1834 |location=London |page=5 |quote=This interesting work is an adaption (we can scarcely call it a translation) from the popular Russian historical novel called ''Dmitrich Miloslawsky'', written about ten years since by M. Zakosken, and we are indebted for its appearance in the English language.}}</ref>

<ref name="TMP 1 Oct 1845">{{Cite news |title=Count Konigsmark |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49910088/the-new-novels/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Morning Post |date=1 October 1845 |page=8 |quote=An Historical Romance}}</ref>

<ref name="TMP 3 Oct 1845">{{Cite news |title=Grand Trunk Railway |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49913949/grand-trunk-railway-and-the-rugby-and/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Morning Post |date=3 October 1845 |location=London |page=2}}</ref>

<ref name="TS">{{cite news |title=Naval and Military Intelligence Chamier Obituary |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49902042/frederick-chamier-obituary-in-the/ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |publisher=The Standard |date=2 November 1870 |location=London |page=6 |quote=Captain Chamier was to Marryat what the late G. P. R, James was to Sir Waited Scott a fairly successful imitator of a great master.}}</ref> <ref name="van der Voort">{{cite book |last1=van der Voort |first1=P. J. |title=The Pen and the Quarter-Deck |date=1 December 1972 |publisher=Brill (1 Dec. 1972) |isbn=9060211537 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z0tcKFClU40C&pg=PA19 |accessdate=1 May 2020|quote=The only detailed publication on Chamier's life and works is a PhD dissertation by P. J. van der Voort, ''The Pen and the Quarterdeck'' (Leiden University Press, 1972). }}</ref> }}

==Further reading== *{{Cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=Chamier, Frederic |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=John Murray}} *{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Chamier, Frederick |first=John Knox |last=Laughton |volume=10}} *{{Cite book |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5090 |chapter=Chamier, Frederick (1796–1870) |first=Roger |last=Morriss |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |accessdate=27 July 2012}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamier, Frederick}} Category:19th-century English novelists Category:1796 births Category:1870 deaths Category:Historians of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Burials at Hastings Cemetery Category:English male novelists Category:Victorian novelists Category:English autobiographers Category:English travel writers Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Novelists from London Category:English naval historians Category:19th-century English historians Category:19th-century British travel writers