Charles Dunbar

Charles Augustus Royer Flood Dunbar was born at Portsea in Hampshire on 30 June 1849. His father was Lieutenant Charles Sydney Dunbar of the Royal Navy. Charles was educated at Vickery’s Naval School in Portsea and joined the Navy as an Assistant Clerk in 1866, advancing to Assistant Paymaster in December 1870. In September 1889 he was Paymaster aboard the gunboat Lily when she ran aground in Canada, with the loss of seven lives. Advanced to Staff Paymaster in August 1893, and to Fleet Paymaster in October 1897, Dunbar saw active service off the Chinese coast in 1900 aboard the Barfleur. He initially retired with the rank of Paymaster-in-Chief in 1908 but volunteered and was re-employed ashore as a Paymaster Captain when war broke out with Germany in 1914. He finally retired with the rank of Paymaster Rear-Admiral and a CBE in 1919 and died at Southsea, on 7 May 1939, aged 89. His only son also served in the Royal Navy.

Photographed by P. Moraïtes of Athens.

Inscribed, signed and dated 2 February 1877 by the sitter. At the time, Dunbar was serving in the Mediterranean as Assistant-Paymaster aboard the armour-plated turret ship Devastation.