Admiral Sir Archibald Lucius Douglas, GCB, GCVO (8 February 1842 – 12 March 1913)
Naval Career
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.
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.
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 football to Japanese naval cadets.
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.
Douglas was promoted to Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station in 1898 and Second Naval Lord in 1899. Promoted to Vice Admiral in June 1901, he was appointed Commander-in-chief of the North America and West Indies Station in June 1902, his flagship being the cruiser HMS Ariadne. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1904 and retired from the service in 1907.
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.
Douglas died in Hampshire in 1913.
Family
Douglas married, in 1871, Constance Ellen Hanks, daughter of Rev. William Hanks. Mrs. Douglas (as she was known then) was godmother to HMS Lancaster in March 1902.