#whsfridayfact Our founder, Lieutenant Charles Robert Malden R.N

Born in Putney in August 1797, the 5tt child of Jonas Malden, surgeon of Putney. His father died when Charles was 8 years old and very shortly after this he was sent away to school.  Aged 12 he was offered a place in the Royal Navy, which he accepted on the 22nd June 1809.  So it was off to Portsmouth to become a junior midshipman on His Majesty’s ship ‘Acaster’, by 1816 he qualified for a Lieutenant ship and joined the ship ‘Tagus18’.  It was at this time that the Admiralty recognised that Lieut. Malden had a special ability as a cartographer and in September 1823 he was appointed to the ‘Shamrock’ survey ship and the following year he transferred to the ‘Blonde’, which would be his last ship as he took early retirement from the Navy. In 1828 he married his wife, Francis and they moved to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. It was here that he began his scholastic carer, taking pupils from the Royal Navy.  In 1837 he purchased Field House, Newport, IOW and started a school for boys, Windlesham House School.