Adm. Hon. Assheton Curzon-Howe

Assheton Gore Curzon-Howe KCB, CVO, CMG ([[10 August 1850-1911) was a British naval officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet from 1908 to 1910.

Curzon-Howe was the thirteenth and youngest child of Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe, and Anne (d. 1877), who was Lord Howe's second wife (Assheton was the youngest of her three children) , daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir John Gore.[2] His paternal great-grandfather was Admiral Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe.

Career

“ In 1888 HMS Boadicea, commanded by Captain the Hon. Assheton Curzon Howe, and flying the flag of Rear Admiral the Hon. Edmund Fremantle, was at the head of a fleet of seven English vessels and one German ship that took part in the blockade of the Zanzibar Littoral. This was undertaken in the interests of the suppression of slavery, and partly in consequence of the revolt of several of the coast towns against German authority. The blockade was of an uninteresting nature. On 6 November the Boadicea's pinnace, commanded by Lieutenant Walter Clifton Slater, captured a large slave dhow off Pemba, after an exciting chase of six hours. The dhow had 41 slaves on board, and was not brought to until shots had been shot on both sides. In September 1890 nine German traders were murdered in Vitu, a small state about 230 miles north of Zanzibar. On 24 October the boats of the Boadicea, Captain the Hon. Assheton Curzon Howe, and those of two other ships, proceeded to Baltia and burnt the village. On 26 October a Naval Brigade of 700 seamen and marines were landed under the personal command of Vice-Admiral the Hon. Edmund Fremantle. Meeting with some brisk resistance en route, the expedition captured the town of Vitu on 27 October, Gunner George Alfred Jenning, of the Boadicea blowing up the town gate with gun cotton. The town and the Sultan's house were burned, and the brigade returned to their ships, having lost 12 men wounded and developed several cases of sunstroke. Captain the Hon. Assheton Curzon Howe was made a C.B. for this service."

In 1894 Curzon-Howe flew his flag as Commodore on the corvette Cleopatra on the North America and West Indies Station

In 1906, now a Vice Admiral, Curzon-Howe served as second-in-command of the Channel Fleet, flying his flag in HMS Caesar (Captain Sydney R. Fremantle). [6] In 1907, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet. [7] Curzon-Howe the served as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1908 to 1910.[8] He was promoted to Admiral in late 1909 or early 1910. [9] He was Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth from 1 May 1910 until his death, age 60, on 17 March 1911. During this time he flew his flag in HMS Victory.[10]