James Hope (Royal Navy officer)
| Sir James Hope | |
|---|---|
Sir James Hope
|
|
| Born | 3 March 1808 |
| Died | 9 June 1881 (aged 73) Carriden House, Bo'ness |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom |
| Service/branch |
 Royal Navy
|
| Years of service | 1820–1878 |
| Rank | Admiral of the Fleet |
| Commands held |
HMS Racer HMS Firebrand HMS Terrible HMS Majestic East Indies and China Station North America and West Indies Station Portsmouth Command |
| Battles/wars |
Uruguayan Civil War Crimean War Second Opium War Tsushima Incident Taiping Rebellion |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath |
Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Hope, GCB (3 March 1808 – 9 June 1881) was a Royal Navy officer. As a captain he was present at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado during the Uruguayan Civil War and then in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War.
Hope became Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station and, when the Chinese authorities refused to allow British and French ministers to travel to Peking, he was instructed to force the Hai River. He assembled a squadron of eleven gunboats and other vessels and, at the Second Battle of the Taku Forts, he led an assault on the forts at the mouth of the river in a resumption of the Second Opium War. However the forts had been strengthened and the squadron encountered firm resistance from the Chinese defenders: Hope was forced to retreat.
Two years later the Russians attempted to establish a year-round anchorage on the coast of the island of Tsushima, a Japanese territory located between Kyushu and Korea, in what became known as the Tsushima Incident. Hope arrived with two British warships and forced the Russian corvette Posadnik to withdraw. The following year he provided assistance to the Imperial Chinese Army in putting down the Taiping Rebellion. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station and then Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.
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