Sir James John Gordon Bremer KCB KCH (26 September 1786 – 14 February 1850) was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Napoleonic Wars, First Anglo-Burmese War, and First Anglo-Chinese War. In China, he served twice as commander-in-chief of British forces.
Born in Portsea, Portsmouth, Bremer joined the Royal Naval College as a student in 1797. While serving in the East Indies, he became commander of HMS Rattlesnake in 1807. He was promoted to captain in 1814 and was nominated a CB the following year. After becoming commander of HMS Tamar, he was sent to Melville Island, Australia, in 1824 to establish a colony. Under his leadership, the north coast of Australia from 129° to 135° longitude was claimed as British territory. He also led the Battle of Berbera in 1827.
Bremer served twice as commander-in-chief of British forces in the First Anglo-Chinese War from 1839 to 1841. During the war, he took formal possession of Hong Kong Island for the United Kingdom in 1841. He was made a KCB the same year. In 1846, he was appointed with Sir Francis Augustus Collier to the joint command of the Channel Squadron and became commodore-superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard from which he retired in 1848. He died in 1850, having risen to the rank of rear-admiral.
Bremer was born on 26 September 1786 in Portsea, Hampshire, England. He was the only son of Royal Navy Lieutenant James Bremer (who went missing in the East Indiaman Halswell off the coast of Dorset, England, on 6 January 1786) and his wife Ann, daughter of Captain James Norman. In 1794 at around 12 years old he joined the Royal Navy as a first-class volunteer on board HMS Sandwich, the flagship of Rear-Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge, at the Nore, from which he was discharged in June 1795. On 8 October 1797, he became a student of the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth, and re-embarked on 2 April 1802 as a midshipman on board HMS Endymion under Captain Philip Durham. Until July 1805, Bremer served in the flagship of Vice-Admiral James Gambier and Rear-Admiral Edward Thornbrough, HMS Isis, on the Newfoundland and North Sea stations. Shortly after passing his examination, he was appointed sub-lieutenant of the gun-brig HMS Rapid. On 3 August 1805, he became a lieutenant on board HMS Captain as part of William Cornwallis' force pursuing a French fleet at Brest.
On 9 May 1806, Bremer was appointed to HMS Diana commanded by Captain Thomas James Maling in the Mediterranean Station, from where he proceeded to the Davis Strait. On 6 October, he served on board HMS Imogen, commanded by Captain Thomas Garth in the Mediterranean. On 28 May 1807, he was appointed to HMS Psyché commanded by Captain William Wooldridge in the East Indies, where he became commander of HMS Rattlesnake on 13 October.[3] He became a post captain on 7 June 1814. On 4 June 1815, he was nominated a Companion of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath (CB).