Eardley-Wilmot, Arthur Parry, 1815-

A.P. (Arthur Parry) Eardley-Wilmot was a British naval officer born on 24 April at Berkswell Hall in Warwickshire, England. He was the fourth son of Elizabeth Emma Parry and Sir John Eardley Eardley-Wilmot, Baronet, MP for Warwickshire and Governor of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania, Australia). He joined the Royal Naval College on 7 August 1828, and was first deployed in 1830. His early assignments included postings in south-east Asia, southern China, and the Sandwich Islands. He was promoted to the rank of Mate in 1834, Lieutenant in 1840, and Acting -Captain in 1847. Notably, Eardley-Wilmot held the post of Commodore Commanding West Coast of Africa between 1862 and 1865. This was a command created to disrupt the trans-Atlantic slave trade following the 1807 Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. He married Charlotte Louisa Mackenzie Wright on 28 July 1868. They had a daughter together named Flora. Eardley-Wilmot died on 2 April 1886, with the title of Vice-Admiral.

Dates of activity and historical information based on the content of the collection, an entry in William Richard O'Byrne's "A Naval Biographical Dictionary," and holdings at the National Archives of the United Kingdom.