Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper (16 August 1809 – 28 October 1885) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer known for his commands in East Asia.

Naval career

Kuper, whose ancestry was German, joined the navy in 1823 as a midshipman.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> On 20 February 1830 he became a lieutenant. On 17 October 1831 he was appointed a lieutenant in ''Savage'', commanded by Lord Edward Russell, on the Irish station. On 9 April 1832, he followed Russell to ''Nimrod'', off the coast of Spain. On 27 August 1833, John Macdougall succeeded Russell, still on the Spain–Portugal station. From 30 March 1836, he was a lieutenant in ''Minden'', commanded by Alexander Renton Sharpe, at Lisbon. Then on 10 July 1837 he moved to ''Alligator'', commanded by

Gordon Bremer Sir James John Gordon Bremer (26 September 1786 – 14 February 1850) was a British Royal Navy officer. He served in the Napoleonic Wars against France, the First Anglo-Burmese War in Burma, and the First Opium War in China. Born in Portsea, ...

, at Australia, who was involved in founding the settlement at

Port Essington Port Essington is an inlet and historic site located on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It was the site of an early attempt at British settlement, but now exists only as a remot ...

. From 27 July 1839, he was a lieutenant and acting captain of '' Pelorous''. While he was captain ''Pelorus'' wrecked on 25 November by a cyclone at Port Essington. There were no casualties and eventually she was refloated. In December 1840 he was promoted to commander, retroactive to when he took command of ''Pelorus''. On 5 March 1840 he became Acting Captain in ''Alligator'', and with her he participated in the

First Opium War The First Opium War ( zh, t=第一次鴉片戰爭, p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1 ...

(1840–1842). On 8 June 1841 he received a promotion to captain, and on 14 June he took command of ''Calliope'' and participated in the operations that led to the capitulation of Canton, China (now Guangzhou). On 21 January 1842 he was made a Companion of the Bath (CB). From 3 July 1850 to February 1854 he was captain in ''Thetis'' from her commissioning at Plymouth. He sailed her to the south-east coast of America and then the Pacific. Kuper Island in the

Strait of Georgia The Strait of Georgia () or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada, and the extreme northwestern mainland coast of Washington, United Stat ...

, off the east coast of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

, was named for him after he surveyed the area from 1851 to 1853. From 13 August 1855 to 24 January 1856 he was the captain of HMS ''London'' in the Mediterranean. In 1861 he was promoted to

rear-admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

and in 1862 he succeeded Admiral Sir James Hope as Commander-in-Chief,

East Indies and China Station The Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China was a formation of the Royal Navy from 1831 to 1865. Its naval area of responsibility was the Indian Ocean and the coasts of China and its navigable rivers. The Commander-in-Chief was appointed in 18 ...

. His tenure coincided with the later stages of British involvement in the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...

. To achieve parity with the French navy, whose local commander-in-chief was a Vice-Admiral, Kuper was given temporary promotion to

vice admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

. In August 1863 he hoisted his flag in the wooden screw-frigate ''Euryalus'' and led a British squadron of seven warships to

Kagoshima , is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 583,966 in 285,992 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Etymology While the ...

to coerce the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of

Satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a ...

into paying the £25,000 demanded by the British Government as reparation to the British victims of the Namamugi Incident. During the

Bombardment of Kagoshima The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , was a military engagement fought between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima from 15 to 17 August 1863. The British were attempting to extract ...

the captain of ''Euryalus'', John James Steven Josling, was killed, as was his second-in-command, Commander Wilmot, both decapitated by the same cannonball. In 1864 Kuper was in command of the International fleet at the Shimonoseki Expedition, Japan, the action fought to reopen the

Inland Sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large in area and is either completely surrounded by dry land (landlocked), or connected to an ocean by a river, strait or " arm of ...

and the Straits of Shimonoseki. His interpreter at Shimonoseki was

Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as , than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was ...

. Kuper was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 25 February 1864 'in acknowledgement of his services at Kagoshima'. In due course, i.e., on 2 June 1869, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath (GCB) and promoted to the rank of vice-admiral in 1866 and to

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

in 1872.

Family

On 19 June 1837 he married Emma Margaret, eldest daughter of Rear Admiral Sir

. Kuper had served under Bremer during the

Opium Wars The Opium Wars () were two conflicts waged between China and Western powers during the mid-19th century. The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain. It was triggered by the Chinese government's campaign to ...

References

;Notes ;Sources *'The British Bombardment of Kagoshima, 1863: Admiral Sir L. Kuper and Lt. Colonel Neale', Appendix One, ''British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972'', edited and compiled by Hugh Cortazzi, first published by Global Oriental for the Japan Society, 2004. * Denney, John. ''Respect and Consideration: Britain in Japan 1853–1868 and beyond''. Radiance Press (2011). * See the entry by J. K. L. (

John Knox Laughton Sir John Knox Laughton (23 April 1830 – 14 September 1915) was a British naval historian and arguably the first to delineate the importance of the subject of Naval history as an independent field of study. Beginning his working life as a math ...

) in the ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

External links

Kuper island
British Columbia, was named after Augustus Leopold Kuper. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuper, Augustus Leopold 1809 births 1885 deaths Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the First Opium War Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath British people of German descent British military personnel of the Shimonoseki campaign Knights Commander of the Military Order of William