Dundonald Park is named in honour of Lieutenant-General Douglas Mackinnon Baillie Hamilton Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald, KCB, KCVO, the last British officer to command the Canadian militia. The park was dedicated in 1905 by the City of Ottawa, who maintains it.
Lieutenant-General Cochrane was born in 1852 and commissioned in the Life Guards in 1870. He served in the Nile Expedition, Desert March and Relief of Khartoum in 1885. In 1895, he was appointed Commanding Officer of 2nd Battalion, Life Guards. He served in the Second Boer War where in 1899 he was appointed Commander of the Mounted Brigade, part of the South Natal Field Force. He took part in the Relief of Ladysmith in February 1900. He was appointed General Officer Commanding the Militia of Canada in 1902. He served in the First World War in the British Admiralty Office. Lieutenant-General Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald, died in 1935 at the age of 82.
