7cm (2.7in) x 3cm (1.2in) x 2.5cm (1in)
Silver. Rectangular toothpick holder, the hinged lid engraved with the Schomberg family crest augmented to include the Tamatave banner in recognition of successful naval engagement fought by Captain Charles Schomberg off Madagascar during the Napoleonic Wars. Maker’s mark of William Pinder. Hallmarked London 1819.
On 20 May 1811, Captain Schomberg, aboard the frigate Astrea, was commanding the British squadron comprising two other frigates and a sloop when they fell in with three large French frigates with troops sent out from France as a reinforcement for their garrison at Mauritius, of whose capture they had been ignorant. After a brisk action, one of the French frigates, the Renommée of 40 guns, struck to the Astraea; the other two escaped for the time, but one, the Néréide, surrendered at Tamatave on the east coast of Madagascar a few days later. It was the crowning achievement of his long and distinguished career in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Read more
Captain Sir Charles Marsh Schomberg, KCH, CB (1779-1835) was born in Dublin and entered the navy in 1788 as captain's servant on the Viceroy of Ireland’s yacht, the Dorset, under his father's command. He served as a midshipman and later as a lieutenant in the 74-gun Minotaur, taking part in boat actions off Cadiz and reinforcing Troubridge’s squadron before the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. During the battle Minotaur fought Aquilon, and after her surrender she was taken possession of by Schomberg. He was afterwards employed on the coast of the Kingdom of Naples and later at the siege of Genoa when Minotaur served as the flagship of Lord Keith In September 1800 Schomberg led Minotaur’s boats in the successful cutting out of the Spanish corvettes Esmeralda and Paz off Barcelona.
As Flag Lieutenant to Lord Keith during the Egyptian Campaign, he was sent to Cairo to act as a liaison officer with Turkish naval forces. After the French capitulation he assisted in the evacuation of French troops from Egypt and Malta. He carried out a mission to Tunis, for which Sir Alexander Ball, the Governor of Malta, later presented him with a handsome piece of plate. For his services in Egypt he was awarded the Imperial Ottoman Order of the Crescent.
In 1807 he became flag captain to Sir Sidney Smyth aboard Foudroyant and in consequence of French invasion of Portugal transported the royal family to Brazil for which Schomberg was later made a Knight of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. In April 1810, he was appointed to the frigate Astraea as part of the reinforcement for the squadron stationed off the Île de France (Mauritius) under Captain Philip Beaver. Schomberg was appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1815 and later served as Commodore and Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope Station. He was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1832 and was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica in 1833.