Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas John Cochrane, GCB (5 February 1789 – 19 October 1872) was a Royal Navy officer.

[2] In HMS Ajax, he saw action supporting French Royalist exiles at Quiberon in spring 1800, escorting troops for an abortive landing at Belle Île in May 1800 and taking part in the equally unsuccessful Ferrol Expedition in August 1800, before landing troops in Egypt in preparation for the more successful Battle of Alexandria in March 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars.

[2] He went on to command of the fifth-rate HMS Surprise on the North American Station in August 1812 and saw action capturing the American ship Decatur in January 1813, taking part in the burning of Washington in August 1814 and the attack on Baltimore in September 1814 and being deployed in operations off the coast of Georgia during the War of 1812.

[5] He split the colony into three judicial districts over each of which he placed a chief justice and two puisne judges and reinvigorated the poor relief system by building roads.

[6] Although Cochrane had opposed the introduction of representative government to the colony, a new constitution was granted in 1832 and he was appointed as the first civil governor.

[18] Cochrane died at Quarr Abbey House on the Isle of Wight on 19 October 1872 and was buried in the family mausoleum at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

[19] In January 1812, Cochrane married Matilda Lockhart-Ross, daughter of Lieutenant General Sir Charles Ross.