Augustus Leopold Kuper Admiral Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper GCB ( 16 August 1809 – 28 October 1885 ) was a Royal Navy officer known for his commands in the far east . Naval career . Kuper , whose ancestry was German , joined the Navy in 1823 as a midshipman . On 20 February 1830 he became a Lieutenant . On 17 October 1831 he was appointed a Lieutenant in " Savage " , commanded by Lord Edward Russell , on the Irish station . On 9 April 1832 he followed Russell to " Nimrod " , off the coast of Spain . On 27 August 1833 , John Macdougall succeeded Russell , still on the Spain - Portugal station . From 30 March 1836 he was a lieutenant in " Minden " , commanded by Alexander Renton Sharpe , at Lisbon . Then on 10 July 1837 he moved to " Alligator " , commanded by James John Gordon Bremer , at Australia , who was involved in founding the settlement at Port Essington . From 27 July 1839 he was a lieutenant and acting captain of " Pelorous " . While he was captain " Pelorus " wrecked on 25 November by a cyclone at Port Essington . There were no casualties and eventually she was refloated . In December 1840 he was promoted to Commander , retroactive to when he took command of " Pelorus " . On 5 March 1840 he became Acting Captain in " Alligator " , and with her he participated in the First Opium War ( 1840 – 1842 ) . On 8 June 1841 he received a promotion to Captain and on 14 June he took command of " Calliope " and participated in the operations that led to the capitulation of Canton , China ( now Guangzhou ) . On 21 January 1842 he was made a Companion of the Bath ( CB ) . From 3 July 1850 to February 1854 he was Captain in " Thetis " from her commissioning at Plymouth . He sailed her to the south - east coast of America and then the Pacific . Kuper Island in the Strait of Georgia , off the east coast of Vancouver Island , is named for him after he surveyed the area from 1851 - 3 . From 13 August 1855 to 24 January 1856 he was a Captain in HMS " London " in the Mediterranean . In 1861 he was promoted to Rear - Admiral and in 1862 he succeeded Admiral Sir James Hope as Commander - in - Chief , East Indies and China Station . His tenure coincided with the later stages of British involvement in the Taiping Rebellion . To achieve parity with the French navy , whose local commander - in - chief was a Vice - Admiral , Kuper was given temporary promotion to Vice - Admiral . In August 1863 he hoisted his flag in the wooden screw - frigate " Euryalus " and led a British squadron of seven warships to Kagoshima to coerce the Daimyo of Satsuma into paying the £100 , 000 demanded by the British Government as reparation to the British victims of the Namamugi Incident . During the Bombardment of Kagoshima the captain of " Euryalus " , John James Steven Josling , was killed , as was his second - in - command , Commander Wilmot , both decapitated by the same cannonball . In 1864 Kuper was in command of the International fleet at the Shimonoseki Expedition , Japan , the action fought to reopen the Inland Sea and the Straits of Shimonoseki . His interpreter at Shimonoseki was Ernest Satow . Kuper was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath ( KCB ) on 25 February 1864 ' in acknowledgement of his services at Kagoshima ' . In due course , i . e . , on 2 June 1869 , he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath ( GCB ) and promoted to the rank of Admiral . Family . On 19 June 1837 he married Emma Margaret , eldest daughter of Sir James John Gordon Bremer .