Thomas Cochrane was perhaps one of the most flamboyant officers to serve in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, but although undoubtedly an exceptionally bold and imaginative character, with some considerable successes to his credit, he did have a darker side. His intriguing against Admiral Gambier and involvement in the Stock Exchange fraud of 1814 are well known, but his rather dubious involvement with the British Army is not without interest.

Subsequent writers have invariably followed, without question, the version which he relates in his autobiography and it would be as well to begin with it now.

"Unknown to my father, he [his uncle; Hon. Captain Sir Alexander Cochrane] had entered my name on the books of various vessels under his command; so that, nominally, I had formed part of the complement of the VESUVIUS, CAROLINA, LA SOPHIE, and HIND; the object common in those days - being, to give me a few years' standing in the service, should it become my profession in reality.

Having, however, a relative in the army, who possessed influence at the Horse Guards [another uncle; Major Andrew Cochrane] a military commission was also procured for me; so that I had simultaneously the honour of being an officer in his Majesty's 104th Regiment, and a nominal seaman on board my uncle's ship.

By way of initiation into the mysteries of the military profession, I was placed under the tuition of an old sergeant, whose first lessons well accorded with his instructions, not to pay attention to my foibles. My hair, cherished with boyish pride, was formally cut, and plastered back with a vile composition of candlegrease and flour, to which was added the torture incident to the cultivation of an incipient queue.

My neck, from childhood open to the lowland breeze, was encased in an inflexible leathern collar or stock, selected according to my preceptor's notions of military propriety; these almost verging on strangulation. A blue semi-military tunic, with red collar and cuffs, in imitation of the Windsor uniform, was provided, and to complete the tout ensemble, my father, who was a determined Whig partisan, insisted on my wearing yellow waistcoat and breeches; yellow being the Whig colour, of which I was admonished never to be ashamed. [1]

A more certain mode of calling into action the dormant obstinacy of a sensitive, high-spirited lad, could not have been devised than that of converting him into a caricature, hateful to himself, and ridiculous to others.

As may be imagined, my costume was calculated to attract attention, the more so from being accompanied by a stature beyond my years. Passing one day near the Duke of Northumberland's palace at Charing Cross, I was beset by a troop of ragged boys, evidently bent on amusing themselves at the expense of my personal appearance, and, in their peculiar slang, indulging in comments thereon far more critical than complimentary.

Stung to the quick, I made my escape from them, and rushing home, begged my father to let me go to sea with my uncle, in order to save me from the degredation of floured head, pigtail, and yellow breeches. This burst of despair aroused the indignation of the parent and the Whig, and the reply was a sound cuffing. Remonstrance was useless; but my dislike to everything military became confirmed; and the events of that day certainly cost His Majesty's 104th Regiment an officer, notwithstanding that my military training proceeded with redoubled severity.

At this juncture, my father's circumstances became somewhat improved by a second marriage, so that my brother Basil and myself were sent to Mr. Chauvet's academy in Kensington Square, in order to perfect our military education - Basil, like myself, being destined for the army. At this excellent school we only remained six months; for with slightly increased resources my father resumed his ruinous manufacturing pursuits, so that we were compelled by the 'res angusta domi' to return to Scotland.

Four years and a half were now wasted without further attempt to secure for us any regular training. We had, however, during the short advantage enjoyed at Kensington, studied diligently, and were thus enabled to make some progress by self-tuition, our tutor's acquirements extending only to teaching the rudiments to the younger branches of the family.

Knowing that my future career depended on my own efforts, and more than ever determined not to take up my military commission, I worked assiduously at the meagre elements of knowledge within my rea * ch, in the hope that by unremitting industry my father might be convinced that opposition to his views was no idle whim, but the result of conviction that I should not excel in an obnoxious profession.

Pleased with my progress, and finding my resolution in favour of the naval service unalterable, he at length consented that my commission should be cancelled, and that the renewed offer of my uncle to receive me on board his frigate should be accepted.

I preferred going on board the HIND at Sheerness; joining that ship on the 27th of June 1793, at the mature age, for a midshipman, of seventeen years and a half." [2]

The outline of his story is therefore quite straightforward, indeed deceptively so: In about 1787, when Thomas was twelve, one of his uncles entered his name on the books of the ship he then commanded and then on three subsequent ones, in order that the boy might gain additional seniority in the navy. This, as he says, was not unknown and will also, incidentally, have brought his uncle an additional #12 or so per year. [3]

Simultaneously, however, another uncle obtained for him a commission, presumably as an ensign, in the 104th Foot. His father, intending that he should indeed become a soldier, had him dressed in a quasi-military uniform, featuring yellow waistcoat and breeches, and placed him in the hands of a military tutor. Five years later, having finally persuaded his father to 'cancel' the commission in the 104th, young Thomas at last achieved his ambition and went to sea in June 1793.

This story, although possessed of a certain charm, is, not to put too fine a point on it, humbug. Indeed in so far as it concerns his military career, it is truthful only in denying any involvement whatever with the 104th Foot.

In the first place, there was of course no such regiment in 1787, when he claims to have had a commission thrust upon him at the behest of his father. Letters of Service for raising L'Hoste's 104th [Manchester] Regiment, were not granted until 1st April 1794. The earliest reference to Cochrane in the ARMY LIST does not in fact occur until the 1794 edition, when he is simultaneously recorded as being a Lieutenant in the 78th Highlanders, with seniority from 4th September 1793, AND the Lieutenant of Captain J. Sullivan Wood's Independent Company with seniority from Ilth December 1793. He thus entered the army, probably as an ensign a week or two before obtaining his Lieutenancy in the 78th, and after, not as his biography claims, before he went to sea.

The strain of nominally being in three places at once finally proved too much for Thomas by the begining of' November 1794. At this date lie was on the North American station in the THETIS, and reduced his PlUrality by obtaining a single captaincy in the 106th [Norwich] Regiment with senioritv from 5th November 1794. [4] Happily, in the shake up of the army which occurred in the following year, he disappeared from the ARMY LIST for good, having drawn his pay for two years without ever having clapped his eyes on any of the units whose pay he drew.

NOTES

[1] The yellow waistcoat and breeches to which he evidently took exception were not therefore, as modern biogiaphers have assumed, worn with his regimentals [since he was not in the army at this time] but with the quasi-military "Windsor" uniform.
[2] The Autobiography of a Seaman [1860] Vol 1 p46-49
[3] Rodgers. N.A.M. "The Wooden World" [1986] P320-1.
[4] As Cochrane wrote his autobiography 60 years later, it is perhaps not surprising that he might have confused this regiment with the 104th.