James Hope (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Hope, GCB (3 March 1808 – 9 June 1881) was a Royal Navy officer.

Naval career

Hope was the son of Rear-Admiral Sir George Johnstone Hope, KCB (1767–1818). He entered the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth in 1820.^[1] He was given command of HMS Racer in 1833 and HMS Firebrand in 1844.^[1] He also took part in the Crimean War as Captain of HMS Majestic.^[1]

He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station in March 1859 and three months later, in an action that saw the continuation of the Second Opium War, sailed North from Shanghai to Tianjin and launched an assault on the Chinese Forces occupying the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Hai River in order to ensure British and French ministers would have safe passage to Peking.^[1]

He helped the Japanese repel the intrusion of a Russian fleet at Tsushima Island in 1861 in the Tsushima Incident.^[2]

He became Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station in 1863.^[1] Promoted to Vice-Admiral in 1864 was made Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1869.^[1] Promoted to Admiral in 1870, he retired in 1878.^[1]

Family

He married Frederica Kinnaird, the daughter of Charles Kinnaird, 8th Lord Kinnaird on 16 August 1838^[1] but was widowered on 27 May 1856. He remarried, to Elizabeth Cotton, daughter of General Sir Arthur Cotton on 6 December 1877, but died shortly afterwards.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Sir James Hope at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2. ^ Negotiating with imperialism Michael R. Auslin p.81
3. ^ Debrett's Baronetage with Knightage 1876, Dean & Son, London, 1876