Admiral Sir Charles Frederick Alexander Shadwell, KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, FRS

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 (31 January 1814 – 1 March 1886) was a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, China Station

China Station

The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, China....

.

Naval career

Born the fourth son of Sir Lancelot Shadwell

Lancelot Shadwell

Sir Lancelot Shadwell was a barrister at Lincoln's Inn and was Member of Parliament for Ripon from 1826 to 1827 before becoming Vice-Chancellor of England in 1827.He supported Jewish emancipation....

, Charles Shadwell joined the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 in 1827. He was present during operations off Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 in 1840. In 1850 he became Commander in HMS Sphinx  and took part in the Second Anglo-Burmese War

Second Anglo-Burmese War

The Second Anglo-Burmese War was the second of the three wars fought between the Burmese and the British Empire during the 19th century, with the outcome of the gradual extinction of Burmese sovereignty and independence....

. Promoted Captain

Captain (naval)

Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 in 1853, he commanded HMS Highflyer

HMS Highflyer (1851)

HMS Highflyer was a 21-gun wooden screw frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built on the River Thames by C J Mare and launched on 13 August 1851...

 from 1865 and took part in the capture of Canton

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

 and the Battle of Taku Forts

Battle of Taku Forts (1859)

The Second Battle of Taku Forts, in June 1859, was an Anglo-French attack on a series of Chinese forts protecting Taku, China during the Second Opium War...

 during the Second Opium War

Second Opium War

The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...

. He commanded HMS Aboukir from 1861 and HMS Hastings

HMS Hastings (1819)

HMS Hastings was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built in Calcutta for the Honourable East India Company, but purchased by the Royal Navy on 22 June 1819....

 from 1862. He was appointed Captain-Superintendent of Gosport

Gosport

Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...

 victualling-yard in 1864 and Commander-in-Chief, China Station

China Station

The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, China....

 in 1871. In 1878 he was made President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich

Old Royal Naval College

The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation as being of “outstanding universal value” and reckoned to be the “finest and most...

. He retired in 1879.

In retirement he lived at Meadow Bank in Melksham

Melksham

Melksham is a medium-sized English town, lying on the River Avon. It lies in the county of Wiltshire.It is situated southeast of the city of Bath, south of Chippenham, west of Devizes and north of Warminster on the A350 national route. The 2001 UK census cited Melksham as having 20,000...

 in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1861. He died unmarried in 1886.