Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Commerell, John Edmund
COMMERELL, Sir JOHN EDMUND (1829–1901), admiral of the fleet, born in London on 13 Jan. 1829, was second son of John William Commerell of Strood Park, Horsham, by his wife Sophia, daughter of William Bosanquet. Entering the navy in February 1842, he was at once sent out to China and initiated in the realities of war. Later on he was in the Firebrand with Captain (afterwards Sir) James Hope [q. v.], and took part in the several operations in the Parana, including the engagement with the batteries at Obligado on 20 Nov. 1845, when the chain was cut by the boats of the Firebrand, a most gallant piece of work, which passed without official recognition. As lieutenant of the Vulture he was in the Baltic in 1854, and took part in the operations in the Gulf of Bothnia, the next year in the Black Sea and Sea of Azoff, and on 29 Sept. was promoted to be commander of the Weser gun vessel, employed in the Sea of Azoff. A few days later, on 11 Oct., he landed with a small party, made a hazardous march inland, and set fire to a large store of forage and corn. The service was both important and dangerous, in acknowledgement of which the Victoria Cross was given to Commerell and two seamen of his party. In 1859 he was in China in the Fury, and commanded a division of the seamen landed for the unsuccessful attack on the Taku forts. Although repulsed, the determined courage in the face of insurmountable difficulties was everywhere recognised, and Commerell was promoted to the rank of captain. In 1866 his services while in command of the Terrible, employed for laying the Atlantic cable, were rewarded with a civil C.B. In 1869 he commanded the Monarch, which in December carried across the Atlantic the remains of George Peabody [q. v.]. In 1870 he received the military C.B., and in February 1871, with a broad pennant in the Rattlesnake, was appointed commander-in-chief on the west coast of Africa. In August 1873, while reconnoitring up the river Prah, he was dangerously wounded by a musket shot in the lungs, which compelled him to invalid. In March 1874 he was created a K.C.B., and attained his flag on 12 Nov. 1876. In the following year he was sent out to the Mediterranean as second in command, at the special request of Sir Geoffrey Hornby [q. v. Suppl. I], with whom Ids relations were throughout most cordial and who highly commended his ability and loyalty while he served with him. In November 1 882 he went out as commander-in-chief on the North American station, where he remained for nearly three years, returning in the autumn of 1885. At the general election of that year, and again in the following, he was returned as conservative member for Southampton, and zealously for the next two years endeavoured to awaken the country to the necessity of strengthening the navy. He was thus largely instrumental in bringing about the Naval Defence Act of 1889, though he was not then in parliament, having resigned his seat in July 1888 on being appointed commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. He had already been promoted to admiral in April 1886, and had been made a G.C.B. on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in June 1887. At Portsmouth it fell to his lot in 1889 to command at the naval review, and to receive the German emperor, who afterwards wrote him an autograph letter on presenting him with a sword. At court he had always been a persona grata ; and on the death of Sir Provo Wallis [q. v.], on 13 Feb. 1892, was by special desire of Queen Victoria promoted to the high rank of admiral of the fleet, although not the senior admiral. In January 1899, at the age of seventy, he was placed on the retired list, and died in London on 21 May 1901. He married in 1853 Mathilda Maria, daughter of Joseph Bushby.
[Royal Navy Lists ; Annual Register ; Sir Evelyn Wood, froni Midshipman to Field-marshal, 1907, p. 255; M. A. Egerton, Life of Sir Geoffrey Hornby, 1896; limes, 22 May 1901.]