Édouard Pottier

Édouard Pottier (6 July 1839 – 3 August 1903) was a French admiral. During his career, he served in various regions of the world and took part in the operations leading to the occupation of Veracruz in 1861 during the Second French intervention in Mexico and the conquest of Vĩnh Long Province in 1867, which added that territory to French Cochinchina. Promoted to captain in 1886, he served in the Mediterranean and the Levant. Promoted to rear admiral in 1893 and vice admiral in 1898, he served as commander of the International Squadron, a multinational squadron which intervened in the Cretan Revolt of 1897–1898 against the Ottoman Empire. In 1900 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French Far East Squadron.

Biography Pottier was born in Strasbourg on 6 July 1839 and entered the French Navy as a cadet at Brest in 1855. Promoted to midshipman on 1 August 1857, he made his first cruise, operating in the Pacific Ocean aboard the 30-gun sailing corvette . In March 1861, he was assigned to the sailing corvette on the Iceland Station. He was promoted to enseigne de vaisseau (ship-of-the-line ensign) on 2 September 1861. and he was elevated to the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour on 12 July 1898 and promoted to vice admiral on 11 October 1898. Pottier and the other admirals commanding the national contingents of the International Squadron promptly requested that their governments recall them, and the International Squadron was dissolved.

On 27 March 1899, Pottier became Maritime Prefect of the 4th Maritime District in Rochefort. On 1 August 1900, he became commander-in-chief of the Far East Squadron, with the ironclad battleship as his flagship. Appointed as commander-in-chief of the West Mediterranean and Levant Squadron on 1 October 1902, he assumed that command in 1903, with the battleship as his flagship.

Pottier died on 3 August 1903 in Rochefort.

Honors and awards