Charles Frederick Arden-Close, 1865 - 1952

Abstract

The forbears of Charles Frederick Arden-Close were predominantly military and naval. Major-General Frederick Close, R.A. (1830-1899) married twice, and by his second marriage, to Lydia Ann Stevens, had seven sons and four daughters. The eldest was Charles Frederick Close, born 10 August 1865, at St Saviour’s, Jersey, C.I., who later changed his surname from Close to Arden-Close by deed poll dated 17 August 1938. His mother’s parents were Captain J. A. Stevens, R.N. (1791-1867), and the daughter of Captain Francis Cole, R.N. (1760-1798), and niece of Captain Sir Christopher Cole, R.N. (who captured Banda Neira on 9 August 1810, and received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament). His paternal grandfather was Captain Charles Close, R.H.A. (1783-1849), who married the daughter of William Lewis, Member of Council, Bombay. This Captain Close had a younger brother, the Very Reverend Francis Close, Dean of Carlisle, a well-known leader of the Low Church Party and a stout opponent of science, especially of geology! The father of these two brothers was the Reverend Henry Jackson Close (1753-1806), rector of Bentworth, Hants, a friend of Warren Hastings whom he helped in his agricultural pursuits at Daylesford, being himself a well-known agriculturist. The large family of Major-General Close—there were also two daughters by his first marriage—created something of a financial problem. Here is what the subject of this memoir wrote about his early life at home and at school: