Archibald Lucius Douglas
Sir Archibald Douglas | |
|---|---|
 "North America and West Indies" Douglas as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, July 1902 | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service/ |  Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1856 – 1907 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order |
Admiral Sir Archibald Lucius Douglas, GCB, GCVO (8 February 1842 – 12 March 1913) was a Royal Navy officer of the 19th century.
Douglas was born in Quebec City in pre-Confederation Canada in 1842. Educated at the Quebec High School, he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1856.[1]
He was selected to head the second British naval mission to Japan in 1873, and served as a foreign advisor to the fledgling Imperial Japanese Navy until 1875.[2]
Douglas was based at the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy, then located at Tsukiji in Tokyo, where he trained a class of 30 officers. During his tenure, his advice was called upon for the Taiwan Expedition of 1874, the first major overseas deployment for the Japanese navy.
During his stay in Japan, he is also credited with having introduced the sport of soccer to Japanese naval cadets.[3]
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Douglas commanded HMS Egeria on an intelligence gathering mission to Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, which he found to have been abandoned by its Russian garrison.[4]
Douglas was promoted to Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station in 1898[5] and Second Naval Lord in 1899. Promoted to Vice Admiral in 1901, he was appointed Commander-in-chief of the North American Station in 1902.[1] He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1904[6] and retired from the service in 1907.[1]
In 1910 he was made an honorary LL.D. of McGill University; in 1902 he was created a KCB, in 1905 a GCVO, and in 1911 a GCB.[1]
Douglas died in Hampshire, England in 1913.
References
- Douglas, Archibald C. Life of Admiral Sir Archibald Lucius Douglas, G.C.B, G.C.V.O, Commander of the Legion of Honour, Order of the Rising Sun of Japan, Spanish Naval Order of Merit, by his son. Mortimer Bros (1938) AISN B001CO3IT8
- ^ a b c d W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 229
- ^ Ian Gow, 'The Douglas Mission (1873-79) and Meiji Naval Education' in J.E. Hoare ed., Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits Volume III, Japan Library 1999 ISBN 978-1873410899
- ^ Embassy of Japan in the UK
- ^ Cambridge Journals
- ^ William Loney RN
- ^ England's Share in Togo's Victory Ashburton Guardian, 1905
Foreign Military Missions to Japan | |||||||||||
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- 1842 births
- 1913 deaths
- Canadian knights
- Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
- Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
- Lords of the Admiralty
- People from Quebec City
- Royal Navy admirals
- Anglophone Quebec people
- Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji period Japan
- Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun
- Canadian expatriates in Japan