Background
He was the son of Thomas Pelham, 2nd Earl of Chichester and Lady Mary Henrietta Juliana Osborne (1776–1862), and entered the navy on 27 June 1823.
captain secretary commander Central Bank
He was the son of Thomas Pelham, 2nd Earl of Chichester and Lady Mary Henrietta Juliana Osborne (1776–1862), and entered the navy on 27 June 1823.
Serving as a midshipman on the HMS Sybille in the Mediterranean (including an attack on Greek pirates), he was promoted to lieutenant in 1830 before serving with the HMS Ferret until being promoted to commander on 21 September 1835. He rose to captain on 3 July 1840. He then commanded HMS Odin, a steam paddle frigate, in the Mediterranean Sea from 1847 to 1850.
He was made commander of the Portsmouth steam reserve in 1853, participating at Bomarsund and other episodes of the 1854 Baltic campaign in that role from his flagship HMS Blenheim.
In that role he headed the attack on Sveaborg (8–10 August), though a surveying officer on the expedition, captain Bartholomew James Sulivan, blamed Pelham for making Dundas overcautious. Sir Maurice Berkeley declined to take Pelham on at the Board of Admiralty in December 1856 due to his connections with Northumberland.
Pelham did enter the Admiralty in November 1857 as Fourth Naval Lord after Berkeley"s retirement, though he then left it in March 1858, having been promoted to Rear-Admiral. Under Dundas and the Duke of Somerset he joined the new Liberal board as Second Naval Lord in June 1859, remaining with it until resigning on grounds of ill health in early June 1861.
He was also made a Companion of the Bath.
On his death later that year he was buried in Highgate cemetery. Constance Mary Kate Pelham (died 5 January 1926)
Beatrice Emily Julia Pelham (died 27 February 1939)
Admiral Frederick Sidney Pelham (25 October 1854 - 19 October 1931).