Sir Edward Owen Cochrane
(1881-1972), Rear-AdmiralSitter in 1 portrait
by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, 23 February 1933
NPG x166634
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Janet Owen Cochrane (known as Jane).
10 January 2021, 12:34
REAR ADMIRAL SIR EDWARD COCHRANE KBE
BORN 17th August 1881 Windlesham, Surrey the son of Captain (later Vice Admiral) Basil E Cochrane.
MARRIED Mary Lucy George on the18th January 1908
CHILDREN James Owen Cochrane and Suzanne Gloria Cochrane
GRANDCHILD Janet Owen Cochrane, known as Jane.
DIED 27th January 1972 Westminster, London.
His great grandfather’s eldest brother was Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane, a hero of the Napoleonic wars.
NAVAL CAREER
HMS Majestic, Channel Squadron, Midshipman 1897-1898
HMS Illustrious, Mediterranean Fleet, Midshipman 1899 to 1901.
HMTB No.46, Mediterranean Fleet, Midshipman 1900.
HMS Racehorse, Chatham Flotilla, Sub-Lieutenant 1903
HMS Royal Oak, Home Fleet, Sub-Lieutenant and Lieutenant, 1903-4
HMS Essex, Home Fleet, Lieutenant 1907-9
(Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander on 15th October 1910)
HMS London, Atlantic Squadron, Lieutenant (G) 1912
HMS Hibernia, 3rd Battle Squadron Atlantic Fleet, Lieutenant First and (G) 1912-15
(Promoted to the rank of Commander on 30th June 1915)
HMS Lord Nelson, Flagship of the Aegean Fleet, November 1918 to 9th May 1919.
16th - 23rd April 1919, as Commander of HMS Lord Nelson serving under Captain Willan he took the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Peter and their party from Prinkipo to Genoa.
29th April to 9th May 1919, as Acting Captain (I believe) of HMS Lord Nelson he brought the Dowager Empress Feodorovna of Russia, her daughter Xenia, five grandsons and a large entourage from Malta to Portsmouth.
HMS Lion, Battle Cruiser Squadron, Squadron Gunnery Officer 1919
HMS Hood, Battle Cruiser Squadron, Squadron Gunnery Officer, 1920
(Promoted to Captain 31st December 1920)
Assistant Director of Naval Intelligence Division 15th July 1921 to 1st April 1922
Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence 1st April 1922 to 14th September 1923
HMS Cairo, East Indies Station, Captain 1924 to 1926.
Captain of Devonport Gunnery School 16th April 1927 to 8th April 1929
Director of Training and Staff Studies 8th April 1929
HMS Repulse, Battle Cruiser, Captain 1931-2
On 15th September 1931 HMS Repulse set sail from Invergordon on a planned exercise as ordered, in spite of a mutiny. This showed the enormous personal respect of the crew for their captain, who did his best to support their pay claims.
Promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral on 3rd January 1933 and placed on the retired list the following day.
Called back into the navy on 24th August 1939 and worked as a Convoy Commodore RNR throughout WW2. It was said in the family that during WW2 he took the first convoy out to America and brought the last one back.
Mentioned in Despatches.
KBE 1943
After the death of his wife in 1952 he travelled widely with the Moral Re-armament, which he had joined in the 1930s to try to prevent WW2. He lived many years in South America before coming back to London for his final years.