Thomas Cochrane (
1775-
1860) was
Lord and then later, the 10
th Earl of Dundonald,
Scotland,
UK. He joined the
Royal Navy at the outbreak of the wars with
Revolutionary France in
1793 at the age of 17, rising to the
rank of
Post-Captain[?] by
1808. He had an excting naval career (to match that of the fictional
Horatio Hornblower), causing the French to give him the nickname 'le loup des mers' or 'The Sea Wolf'. Apart from this, he pursued a very active
political career, as a staunch campaigner for
parliamentary reform in
Britain, being allied with such
Radicals[?] as
William Cobbett and
Henry 'Orator' Hunt[?]. After being falsely accused as a conspirator in a
Stock Exchange fraud in 1815, he was expelled from the
Royal Navy, and later joined the fight for the independence of the
South American colonies from
Spain and
Portugal.
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