[Sir Christopher George Francis Maurice]. British admiral, born at Hartforth, Yorkshire, on the 2nd of July 1862, the son of Christopher Cradock. He entered the navy at the age of thirteen and saw service in Egypt both in 1882 and again in the Soudanese expedition of 1891. He commanded the British Naval Brigade at the capture of the Taku forts and the relief of Peking (1900). He more than once performed personal feats of gallantry in saving life at sea and showed himself a bold and fearless leader in action. He was promoted captain after Taku, and rear-admiral in 1910. In 1912 he was granted the K.C.V.O. He published Sporting Notes in the Far East (1889); Wrinkles in Seamanship (1894) and Whispers from the Fleet (1907). Early in the World War he was given command of a British squadron in the Pacific consisting of the cruisers Good Hope (flagship) and Monmouth, the armed merchantman Otranto and the light cruiser Glasgow. His squadron was attacked off the coast of Chile (Nov. 1, 1914) by five German warships, the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig, Dresden and Nuremberg. Though inferior in speed and gunpower he decided to attack. The Monmouth was sunk and the Good Hope was blown up whilst making for shore, Admiral Cradock going down with the ship.