William Arthur (4 July 1830 – 15 November 1886) was a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
officer after whom
Port Arthur in China was named.
Career
Arthur entered the navy at age fifteen in July 1845. He was commissioned as a
Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
on 8 March 1854, and two years later in 1856, he acquired his first experience of command on the gunboat
HMS ''Manly''. On 4 June 1858 he was given command of the gunvessel
HMS ''Algerine''.
In August 1860, during the
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
, Port Arthur was named by Commander John Ward of
HMS ''Actaeon'', after Lt. Arthur, whose ''Algerine'' was the first British ship to enter the harbour at Lüshun, at that time an unfortified fishing village. The British referred to Lüshun as Port Arthur from this point on, and the Russians and other Western powers adopted the British name. Port Arthur was a fortified harbour city which changed hands several times, variously occupied by Britain,
Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
before returning to
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
ownership in 1950.
Arthur was promoted to Commander on 1 April 1861 and Captain on 15 April 1867. He was Captain of the
Torpedo School, April 1876 – June 1879. He served as a
naval attaché
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, 1879 – 1882, before being given command of which was assigned as Queen Victoria's guard ship when the Queen was in residence at
Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in t ...
on the Isle of Wight. He retired with the rank of
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
on 30 March 1885.
[
He died at Bakeham Grange, ]Egham
Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...
, on 15 November 1886, aged 56. He was buried at St Mary's Church, Atherington, Devon
Atherington is a village and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England, about 8 miles south of Barnstaple. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 391.
The church of St Mary is Perpendicular and was restore ...
with his family; his father had been rector there. His widow, Mary Jane Arthur () erected a monument to her husband in St Ann's Church, HMNB Portsmouth
St Ann's Church is an Anglican chapel within HMNB Portsmouth, His Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth. It is regarded as the spiritual home of the Royal Navy, and contains numerous memorials to men lost at sea.
The original church was built in 1704, ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arthur, William C.
1830 births
1886 deaths
Royal Navy officers
British expatriates in China
British expatriates in the United States