Ancestor brought up in Malta

My paternal great-great-grandfather, Edmund HeathcoteBingham, was born on August 23, 1840, an illegitimate child, and baptised on Corfu on October 4, 1840. I have a copy of his baptism certificate.

His father was EdmundHeathcote, a lieutenant, who later became an admiral in the Royal Navy.

I have his mother’s name, Emma Bingham, but I am not completely sure of her lineage. She may have been the daughter of an English colonel, Charles Cox Bingham, but I am beginning to wonder whether this is correct. Edmund Heathcote Bingham appears to have spenthis first 30 years in Malta – butnot in the care of either parent, necessarily.

He married Eveline Celia Hope (also born in Corfu) in Malta on April 29, 1863, and on July 9, 1865, had a son there, also Edmund Heathcote Bingham. In 1868 another son was born in Malta, Alexander Hope Bingham.

In 1871 the family went to Garston, Lancashire, England – a port town. By 1873 the family was back in Malta, and a daughter, Emma Hope Bingham, was born in Valletta.

I would like to know who brought up Edmund Heathcote Bingham senior, and any circumstances of his life in Malta.

I would also like to solve the puzzle of who his mother, Emma, was, and why she did not marry Edmund. (Edmund Heathcote went on to have a spectacularly disastrous marriage, when his wife had an incestuous relationship with her brother. Edmund’s divorce hearing was heard in the House of Lords by the Duke of Wellington, and his wife was transported as a convict to Australia).

Any help would be much appreciated.