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James and Evelina were brother and sister, the children of James Brant C.B. who had been British Consul in Erzerum, Turkey, from 1836-40 and in Damascus in the late 1850s (1,2).  Their other brother Richard Brant C.M.G. (1852-1934) was the Foreign Office Librarian and Keeper of the State Papers. 

JAMES BRANT 

James was born in Erzerum in 1850 and he entered the Royal Navy.  He was a sub-lieutenant on HMS Pearl in 1873 when the ship visited New Zealand from Australia where it was stationed(3,4).  Pearl had been commissioned in Portsmouth that year and that is presumably when James joined it.  Brant was promoted to Lieutenant in December 1874 (5).  When he left Pearl is not clear but it is likely that he was still on the ship when its Captain, James Goodenough, was attacked and killed with a poisoned arrow on Santa Crus, one of the Friendly Islands, during negotiations with the inhabitants in August 1875. 

By the time of the 1881 census James Brant was stationed at Portland on HMS Warrior which was the local guard ship.  Warrior was famous as the first iron-clad battleship to be built but was soon obsolete.  It re-entered service after a refit in 1875 but was soon relegated to the First Reserve and to mundane duties such as that of a guard ship.  

During 1881 it transferred to the Clyde for similar duties where it stayed until 1883.  It is now a museum ship at Portsmouth (7).  James was transferred to HMS Euryalus and was with her in 1882 (6).  Euryalus was the flagship of the East Indies Squadron and James was the gunnery officer.

In Weymouth in 1888, James married Florence Mary Penny the daughter of the vicar of West Coker in Somerset, where she had been born.  They do not appear to have had any children.  By 1891 they were living in Kingston upon Hull and he was still a Lieutenant RN.  In May 1895 he was pensioned and placed on the retired list with permission to assume the rank of Commander (5).  The Brants do not appear in the 1901 census but they were living in Budleigh Salterton by 1911 in Shandon, one of the terrace of houses in the lower part of Station Road.  By 1929 and 1933 they had moved to St. Martin’s in Westfield Road (8). 

According to The Navy List of 1913 James was in receipt of a medal for war service which must relate to some event between 1882 and 1895.  His naval pension was £50 per annum (at the Lieutenant level) but this was increased to £75 in May 1933 (the Commander level).  He died in late 1934. Florence is listed in the 1936 Telephone Directory and the 1939 Kelly’s Directory at St. Martin’s, The Lawn. 

EVELINA HOLMES 

Evelina was born in 1848 in Malta and she was buried in Budleigh Salterton Cemetery in September 1916.  Born Evelina Brant, she married Percy Lee Holmes (1825-1912) in 1869.  Percy had joined the Indian Army as a cadet in 1841 and was promoted to the honorary rank of Major General in the Madras Native Infantry shortly after his retirement in 1877.    

They had at least nine children (1), two born in India and one in Burma, the fourth child probably in India but he seems to have died.  The rest of the children were born in England, in Surbiton, Ewell and then Streatham (1881-1911 censuses), after General Holmes’ retirement in 1877.  He died in 1912.  Whether Evelina was visiting her brother James Brant or was living with him when she died is not clear.  The majority of her children went back to India or emigrated to North America. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon © 2010 

(1)manucharian.netfirms.com/ztbltr3b.html - United States

(2)yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title...Consuls_in

(3)http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=1224 

(4)paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi.../paperspast?a=d  

(5)London Gazette

(6)Navy List 1882

(7)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warrior_(1860)

(8)Telephone Directories

110 BS-B-00040 Biography any