Arthur entered the navy at age fifteen in July 1845. He was commissioned as a
Lieutenant on 8 March 1854, and two years later in 1856, he acquired his first experience of command on the gunboat
HMS Manly. On 4 June 1858 he was given command of the gunvessel
HMS Algerine. In August 1860, during the
Second Opium War, Port Arthur was named by Commander John Ward of
HMS Actaeon, after Lt. Arthur, whose
Algerine was the first British ship to enter the harbour at Lüshun, at that time an unfortified fishing village. The British referred to Lüshun as Port Arthur from this point on, and the Russians and other Western powers adopted the British name. Port Arthur was a fortified harbour city which changed hands several times, variously occupied by Britain,
Imperial Russia,
Japan and the
Soviet Union before returning to
Chinese ownership in 1950. Arthur was promoted to Commander on 1 April 1861 and Captain on 15 April 1867. He was Captain of the
Torpedo School, April 1876 – June 1879. He served as a
naval attaché in
Washington, D.C., 1879 – 1882, before being given command of which was assigned as Queen Victoria's guard ship when the Queen was in residence at
Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. He died at Bakeham Grange,
Egham, on 15 November 1886, aged 56. He was buried at St Mary's Church,
Atherington, Devon with his family; his father had been rector there. His widow, Mary Jane Arthur () erected a monument to her husband in
St Ann's Church, HMNB Portsmouth. ==References==