Alexander Dundas Young Arbuthnott


Sir Alexander Dundas Young Arbuthnott was a British rear admiral during the Victorian era.

Background

Born in Forton, Hampshire, he was the son of Robert Arbuthnott, grandson of Robert Arbuthnot, 1st Viscount of Arbuthnott, and his wife Cordelia, daughter of Hon. James Murray.

Career

Arbuthnott entered the Royal Navy in 1803 and served as a midshipman aboard the warship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He was present at the capture of Le Rhin in 1806 and that of four French frigates off Rochefort by Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Baronet's Squadron in the same year. Arbuthnott was with the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807, was at the capture of Antwerp, and escorted the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia to England in 1814.
He was commander of the Jasper, a 10-gun sloop-of-war, on a mission to Saint Petersburg in 1823. In the following year, Arbuthnott was in the Redwing and was appointed a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. He then commanded and served in the Syrian Campaign of 1840. Arbuthnott was promoted to vice-admiral in 1858 and was created a Knight Bachelor a year later.
Sir Alexander was Grand Prior of the Sovereign and Illustrious Order of St John of Jerusalem, Anglia 1860–61. He was invested as a Knight Commander of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Carlos III and held the same rank in the Russian Military Order of the Saint Grand Martyr and the Triumphant George.
He was ultimately promoted to full admiral on the Retired List in 1863 before his death in 1871.

Family

In 1827, Arbuthnott married in Kildare Catherine Maria Eustace, third daughter of Rev. Charles Eustace and descendant of the Viscounts Baltinglass. They had a daughter, Josette Eliza Jane Arbuthnot.
Arbuthnott died in 1871 in Leicester. He is buried in Shenton, Leicestershire.