George Broke-Middleton Explained

Admiral Sir George Nathaniel Broke-Middleton, 3rd Baronet CB (26 April 1812 – 14 January 1887) was a British Royal Navy officer.

Life

Broke-Middleton was the second son of Sir Philip Broke, 1st Baronet, and Louisa Middleton.[1] He entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman on 16 August 1825. By 4 November 1840 he had gained the rank of Commander while serving on . On 18 December 1845, he was promoted to the rank of captain, and in 1855 took command of HMS Gladiator, seeing active service in the Crimean War. In 1858, Broke took command of, and in March 1859 became captain of . The following month he was invalided out of regular naval service.[2] He was promoted to the rank of retired Rear Admiral on 3 December 1863, Vice Admiral on 1 April 1870 and Admiral on 22 January 1877.

On 4 February 1855, he succeeded to his older brother's baronetcy.[3] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in July 1855. In 1860, Broke assumed the additional surname of Middleton after inheriting the estate of his cousin, Sir William Fowle Fowle Middleton. In 1864, he served as High Sheriff of Suffolk.

Death and legacy

Broke-Middleton died unmarried in 1887, and the baronetcy became extinct. His Suffolk estates were inherited by a niece, Lady de Saumarez, formerly Jane Anne Broke, the daughter of his brother Captain Charles Acton Broke. In 1882, she had married James Saumarez, 4th Baron de Saumarez, and the estates thus passed into the Saumarez family.[4]

Notes and References

  1. John Burke, A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Volume 1 (H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1832), p.151
  2. Naval service record of George Nathaniel Broke-Middleton RN http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=1591 (Accessed 1 June 2015)
  3. ThePeerage.com (entry #524852) http://www.thepeerage.com/p52486.htm#i524852 (Accessed 1 June 2015)
  4. Walford Dakin Selby, ed., The Genealogist, vol. 23 (1907), p. 143: "He on his uncle's decease in 1860, assumed the additional name of Middleton, and dying s.p. on 19th January 1887, the property devolved upon his niece, Jane Anne Broke, the daughter of his deceased brother, Captain Charles Acton Broke, 11. E. (ob. 1855). She, on 10th October 1882, became the wife of Sir James St Vincent, fourth Baron de Saumarez."