Journals of Reverend Charles Edward Panter, M.A., R.N., chaplain in the Royal Navy

Ten volumes containing a continuous journal kept by Reverend Charles Edward Panter, between March 1881 and September 1899. Include explanations of how he secured a nomination for a commission, how his role as chaplain fitted into the organisation of the ship, and his regular duties. Includes accounts of the difficulties he encountered in promoting worship on board ship. Provides details of material used in sermons and prayers, and levels of attendance at communion, choir practice and temperance meetings. Records visits to give spiritual comfort to crew members in sick bays and cells, and his discussions with individuals about beliefs and upbringing. The voyages recorded by Panter range over a wide geographical area, incorporating ports of call with strong connections to British colonial history. For example, while serving on HMS BRITON along the west coast of Africa between 1881 and 1884, he visited locations associated with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, including Cape Coast Castle. At this location he made a sketch of a memorial tablet to Letitia Elizabeth Landon, poet and novelist, wife of George McLean, governor of the Gold Coast, who was poisoned and died in 1838. Four years after the events of the Anglo-Zulu War, in Jan 1883, Panter has a conversation with Cetewayo (Cetshwayo kaMpande), as he was being conveyed from exile at Cape Town to be reinstated as king of part of the Zululand territory. Still on the BRITON, Panter witnessed some of the operations against the Mahdist uprising in Egypt-controlled Sudan, with reference to the deaths of some of the crew who served with the Naval Brigade at the Battle of Tamai (or Tamanieh) in Mar 1884. He refers to ‘constant denunciation’ among his colleagues about the war in Sudan and refers to other related events including the death of General Gordon at Khartoum in Jan 1885.

Most volumes contain loose matter and other items, found in the journals, which are now enclosed in melinex seleeves.

Related materials: https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/library/rmg-47637.

See file level records for detail.

Administrative / biographical background
Reverend Charles Edward Panter was born at Fulham, Middlesex, the youngest son of John Edward Panter and his wife Elizabeth Lucy Panter née Wrench. He was ordained into the priesthood after studying at Pembroke College, Oxford University. From 1877 he was a curate at All Saints, Hereford; then for a short time for his brother at St Paul’s, Burslem, Staffordshire. He became a chaplain in the Royal Navy in 1882 and his service took him abroad to locations including Africa, the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Canada and South America. He was with the crew of the wooden screw corvette HMS BRITON (1869) during operations against the Mahdist uprising in Sudan in Mar 1884. He was base chaplain at Port Royal, Jamaica, attached to the depot ship HMS URGENT (1855), between 1891 and 1893. He was on the armoured cruiser HMS IMPERIEUSE (1883), flagship on the Pacific station, based at Esquimalt near Vancouver, between 1896 and 1899. Panter’s first wife Elizabeth (Lily) Caroline Panter née Raven died from tuberculosis in 1902. Panter was placed on the retired list at his own request, shortly before his second marriage, to Ethel Florence Mallet, in 1907. In the same year he became vicar of Holy Trinity, Far Forest, Worcester. In 1917 he moved to become vicar of St John the Baptist, Purbrook, close to Portsmouth, where he stayed until his death in 1921. Panter’s record of service in the Royal Navy can be found under the reference ADM 196/82/42 at The National Archives.