Edward Pelham Brenton

Who was Edward Pelham Brenton?

Captain Edward Pelham Brenton was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who military career was relatively quiet, apart from involvement in the capture of Martinique in 1809. Brenton became famous in the aftermath of the war, when he published the Naval History of Great Britain from the Year 1783 to 1822 in 1823. The book was popular, but Brenton was criticised at the time and since for his failure to distinguish between fact and rumour as well as his partisan political leanings. In Brenton's later life, he was heavily involved in charitable enterprises in the poorer areas of London with mixed success.