John Cotton, M.P., Inspector-General, died on the 12th inst., at the Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse. In 1846 he graduated M.D. at Edinburgh University, became a Surgeon in the Royal Navy in the following year, and was appointed a Staff Surgeon in 1854. He then took part in the Crimean War on board the Arethusa and the Royal Albert, was engaged for nearly twelve months in the batteries and trenches before Sebastopol, and was at the bombardment of Odessa, and at the attack on the sea defences of Sebastopol. These services were noticed in the Gazette, and gained for Dr. Cotton the Crimean and Turkish medals, the Inkerman and Sebastopol clasps, and the fifth class of the Medjidie. In 1857 he served at the capture of Canton, and, on board the Inflexible, at the destruction of a piratical fleet and stronghold near Hong-Kong, receiving the China medal and Canton clasp, as well as mention in the despatches
Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2256—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, July 29, 1882, p.128