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Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald was a senior British nanal officer who, after distingushed service during the Napoleonic wars, was accused of Stock Exchange fraud and dismissed from the service.

In May 1817, at the request of Chilean leader Bernardo O'Higgins, he took command of the Chilean Navy in Chile's war of independence against Spain. He became the first Vice Admiral of Chile and Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy.

In November 18222, Cochrane left the service of the Chilean Navy and, in March 1823, Cochrane took command of the Brazilian Navy and its flagship, the 'Pedro I'. He blockaded the Portuguese in Bahia, confronted them at the Battle of May 4, and forced them to evacuate the province in a vast convoy of ships which Cochrane's men attacked as they crossed the Atlantic.

Cochrane inherited his peerage following his father's death on 1 July 1831, becoming the 10th Earl of Dundonald. He was restored to the Royal Navy list on 2 May 1832 as a Rear Admiral.

In May 1847 Queen Victoria reinstated him as a knight in the Order of the Bath. He then served as Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies station from 1848 to 1851. During the Crimean War, the government considered him for a command in the Baltic, but decided that there was too high a chance that he would lose his fleet in a risky attack.

In November 1854, he was appointed to the honorary office of Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom, an office that he would retain until his death.

In his final years he wrote his autobiography in collaboration with G.B. Earp. With his health deteriorating, in 1860 Cochrane twice underwent painful surgery for kidney stones. In October 1860 he died, aged 84, during the second operation. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his grave is in the central part of the nave.