Thomas Maitland, 11th Earl of Lauderdale

Admiral of the Fleet Thomas Maitland, 11th Earl of Lauderdale, GCB (3 February 1803 – 1 September 1878) was a Royal Navy officer and peer.

Naval career
Born the only son of General The Hon. William Maitland (himself the fourth son of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale) and his first wife, Mary, Maitland joined the navy in 1816. He was promoted to lieutenant for service aboard HMS Euryalus in 1823. In 1825, he was appointed to serve aboard HMS Superb at Portsmouth and to HMS Ganges in 1826 on the South American station. Promoted to commander in 1827, he commanded HMS Sparrowhawk from 1832 to 1833 in the West Indies, bringing home a treasure of $589,405 and 42 bales of cochineal.

From 1835 to 1837, Maitland commanded HMS Tweed on the north coast of Spain during the Spanish Civil War, for which he received the cross of the Order of Charles III. In 1837, he was promoted to captain and took command of HMS Wellesley on the East India station and saw action off the Persian Gulf in 1839 and during the First Opium War from 1840 to 1841, for which he was appointed a CB in 1841.

He was Captain of the Gunnery School at Portsmouth from 1854 to 1857. In 1857 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral and was Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station from 1860 to 1862. He was appointed KCB in 1865, First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp from 1866 to 1873, GCB in 1873 and Admiral in 1868. He retired in 1873 and became Admiral of the Fleet in 1877.

Lord Lauderdale died in 1878 at the family home, Thirlestane Castle in Berwickshire.

Family
On 7 February 1828, Maitland married Amelia Young at Rio de Janeiro (whilst posted in South America) and they had four children:


 * Thomas Mordaunt (1838–1844)
 * Isabel Anne (d. 1854)
 * Lady Alice Charlotte Maitland (d. 1883)
 * Lady Mary Jane (1847–1918), married Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath.

As his only son predeceased him, Maitland's titles and hereditary offices passed to his second cousin once removed, Charles Barclay-Maitland.