Arthur Cochrane (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir Arthur Auckland Leopold Pedro Cochrane, KCB (24 September 1824 – 20 August 1905) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station.
Sir Arthur Cochrane | |
|---|---|
| Born | 24 September 1824 |
| Died | 20 August 1905 (aged 80) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/ | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1839–1886 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands held | HMS Horatio HMS Niger HMS Warrior HMS Cumberland Pacific Station |
| Battles/wars | Oriental Crisis Crimean War Second Opium War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |
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Born the third son of the tenth Earl of Dundonald, Cochrane joined the Royal Navy in 1839.[1] He fought at Acre where he was wounded during the Oriental Crisis in 1840[2] and then served in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War[1] where he devised a method of towing torpedoes to their target using kites in 1855.[3]
Promoted to captain in 1854, he was given command of HMS Horatio at Sheerness and then of HMS Niger in which he took part in the destruction of the Chinese Fleet in October 1856 during the Second Opium War.[2] He later commanded HMS Warrior and then HMS Cumberland.[1] He was appointed Superintendent of Sheerness dockyard in 1869 and Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station in 1873.[1] He was promoted to admiral in December 1881, and retired from the navy in June 1886.[4][5] In retirement he was involved in managing the Trinidad Lake Asphalt Company.[5]
In a letter to The Times in 1902, Admiral Cochrane wrote about attending the enthronement festivities of King Louis Philippe I of the French in Paris in 1830, being present at the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, and the (at that point) recent Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra earlier the same year.[6]