He was commissioned as a Lieutenant on 8 March 1854, and two years later in 1856, he acquired his first experience of command on the gunboat HMS Manly.

[2] In August 1860, during the Second Opium War, Port Arthur was named by Commander John Ward of HMS Actaeon, after Lt. Arthur, whose Algerine was the first British ship to enter the harbour at Lüshun, at that time an unfortified fishing village.

Port Arthur was a fortified harbour city which changed hands several times, variously occupied by Britain, Imperial Russia, Japan and the Soviet Union before returning to Chinese ownership in 1950.

He was buried at St Mary's Church, Atherington, Devon with his family; his father had been rector there.

His widow, Mary Jane Arthur (née le Mesurier) erected a monument to her husband in St Ann's Church, HMNB Portsmouth.