Pierre Paul Marie Benoît de La Grandière (28 June 1807 – 25 August 1876) was a French admiral who was Governor of the colony of Cochinchina from 1863 to 1868.

[1] His father, Joseph Auguste Marie de La Grandière (1770–1845), emigrated in 1792 during the French Revolution, returned to the navy with the Bourbon Restoration and ended his career as a frigate captain in Lorient.

In 1827 he was a lieutenant on the Trident in the Battle of Navarino in which an Ottoman Empire fleet was defeated by an Anglo-French-Russian coalition fighting for the independence of Greece.

[1] It was rumored that La Grandière had shown cowardice on 31 August for not bringing the Eurydice to assist the Forte in engaging the Russian shore batteries.

[1] In May 1863 Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat, Minister of Marine and Colonies, named La Grandière Governor General and commander of the Cochinchina naval station, with the Duperré as his flagship.

He developed French and indigenous administrations, created more schools, recruited and trained Indochinese troops and abolished corporal punishment.

[1] In 1866 La Grandière initiated collection of artifacts from ancient Khmer and Chàm sites to be exhibited in Saigon, but they had to be stored until a suitable building could be made available.

[8] La Grandière made Achille-Antoine Hermitte head of his architectural department, as recommended by admirals Pierre-Gustave Roze and Gustave Ohier.

[11] On 11 August 1863 Admiral de La Grandière signed a Treaty of Friendship, Trade and French Protection with King Norodom of Cambodia.

[12] La Grandière visited Siem Reap and the ruins of Angkor Wat, then in Siamese territory, but he treated it as if it were part of Cambodia.

[1] La Grandière was concerned that the Vietnamese provinces to the west of Cochinchina would be trouble spots, and secretly organized an expedition that occupied Vĩnh Long, Sa Đéc, Châu Đốc and Hà Tiên on 20–24 June 1867.

Phan Thanh Giản, former envoy of Tu Duc in Paris and now governor of these provinces, told the mandarins to avoid bloodshed and submit.