Edward Pellew, 5th Viscount Exmouth

Edward Pellew was born on 12 November 1890 in Newton Abbot, Devon, England.[1] His parents were Edward Pellew, 4th Viscount Exmouth, and Edith Hargreaves, the daughter of Thomas Hargeaves, Esq., a Justice of the Peace. In 1903 Pellew entered the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen,[2] then went to Eton in the fall of 1905, and continued his education at Trinity College, Cambridge.[3][4] In January 1911 he travelled to the United States where he spent at least a month visiting relatives including his aunt, Mrs. Sophia Jackson.[5] He visited the United States at least once more in 1913 when he went to both Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.[6]

After college he entered the British Army joining the 7th Service Battalion of Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment). On 25 January 1915, he gained his pilot's certification on a Maurice Farman biplane at Shoreham Airport (now named Brighton City Airport).[7][8] He spent the rest of the war in the Royal Flying Corps, but he ultimately had to give up his Air Force career in 1918 because of ulcerative colitis. He never regained his health and died on 17 August 1922 at Marylebone, London County, England, after an unsuccessful operation for surgery to his bowel:[9][10] The official cause of death was carcinoma of the colon.[11] He was buried in the family vault at St. James's Church, Christow, Devon, England.[12]

During his lifetime Pellew saved all of his regimental pay, and upon his death the accumulated savings were donated "... to the Prince of Wales National Relief Fund declaring that he did not wish to reap any pecuniary benefit for his services to his country during wartime."[13] Nearly the entire remainder of his estate passed to his cousin Dr. Edward Irving Pellew, of Pau, France, who became the 8th Viscount Exmouth in 1945.

Pellew was succeeded in his titles by his first cousin twice removed, Henry Pellew, who was living in the United States.[14]