UK: Admiral Sir George Elliot, KCB (1784 – 1863), Royal Navy officer who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as the First Opium War. Portrait by Sir George Hayter, 1834

Elliot was born to influential and distinguished family that included several powerful politicians and diplomats. After entering the navy at an early age he served through several of the decisive battles of the French Revolutionary Wars, seeing action at Genoa, Hyères, and Cape St Vincent and under Nelson at the Nile and Copenhagen. He had graduated to his own commands by the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, being described by Nelson as one of the best officers in the navy, and served with distinction in the Mediterranean and in the East Indies, where he took part in the Invasion of Java.

Elliot was promoted to rear-admiral on 10 January 1837 and in September that year went out as commander-in-chief of the Cape Station. He was then sent to China in February 1840, during the First Opium War, as commander-in-chief East Indies and China Station and joint plenipotentiary with his cousin, Captain Charles Elliot.

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OPIUM