Alexander Dundas Young Arbuthnott

For other people named Alexander Arbuthnot, see Alexander Arbuthnot (disambiguation).
Sir Alexander Arbuthnott
Born 1789 (1789)
Forton, Hampshire, England
Died 8 May 1871 (1871-05-09)
Leicester
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service 1803 - 1846
Rank Royal Navy Rear Admiral
Battles/wars Battle of Trafalgar, 1805
Battle of Copenhagen, 1807
Awards Naval Gold Medal
Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to George IV and Queen Victoria
Knight Commander of the Russian Order of Saint George, 1823
Knight Commander of the Spanish Order of Charles III, 1837
Turkish gold medal and Order of Medjidie, 1842
Knight Bachelor, 1859

Sir Alexander Dundas Young Arbuthnott (1789 – 8 May 1871) was a British Rear Admiral during the Victorian era.

Contents

Background

Born in Forton, Hampshire, he was the son of Robert Arbuthnott, grandson of Robert Arbuthnot, 1st Viscount of Arbuthnott, and his wife Cordelia, daughter of Hon. James Murray.[1]

Career

Arbuthnott entered the Royal Navy in 1803 and served as a midshipman aboard the warship HMS Mars at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He was present at the capture of Le Rhin in 1806 and that of four French frigates off Rochefort by Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Baronet's Squadron in the same year. Arbuthnott was with the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807, was at the capture of Antwerp, and escorted the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia to England in 1814.

He was Commander of the Jasper, a 10 gun Sloop-of-war, on a mission to St Petersburg in 1823. In the following year, Arbuthnott was in the Redwing and was appointed a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. He then commanded HMS Terror and served in the Syrian Campaign of 1840. Arbuthnott was promoted to vice-admiral in 1858 and was created a Knight Bachelor a year later.[1]

He later served as colonel in the staff of the British Auxiliary Legion during the First Carlist War and made a major-general by Queen Isabella II of Spain.[1] Arbuthnott was invested as a Knight Commander of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Carlos III and held the same rank in the Russian Military Order of the Saint Grand Martyr and the Triumphant George.[1]

Family

In 1827, Arbuthnott married in Kildare Catherine Maria ("Mary") Eustace (born about 1806 in Ireland; still alive in 1891 living in Sheepy Magna, Leicestershire, third daughter of Rev. Charles Eustace and descendant of the Viscounts Baltinglass. They had a daughter, Josette Eliza Jane Arbuthnot (born about 1829 in France; died 12 January 1909). Arbuthnott died in 1871 in Leicester. He is buried in Shenton, Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Dod, Robert P. (1860). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Whitaker and Co.. pp. 91.