George P. Canning was born George Baltriune Canning in Rotherhithe, in central South East London, on July 15, 1837, in "a cottage on the Rector's Island", the son of Alfred D. Canning and Anne Powell married in 1817 in Worcester, Worcestershire. Georges birth name us also spelled in other places as Boutrenne, Baltrinne, Botriune, Botrine, Botrinne, Boutrinne, Beautrine, and other variants. George was the youngest of seven children and was described as a well-educated gentleman who spoke fluent French and was considered the Beau Brummel, an English dandy who was a fashion leader, of the family. He married his wife Margaret in the United States and had two Sons; Alfred and Rafton. Alfred was an epileptic and Rafton followed the horses. Both Died in France. Baltriune lived in or very near the Faubourg Saint Germain region of Paris, France at the time his first son was born, in 1858. George worked as a Civil Engineer and a Catholic by faith. George later joined the Confederate States Navy after migrating to Australia. Baltriune Canning began using the name George Botrine Canning as early as 1860. This was discovered in the French-written birth record of his second son, "Rafton Boutrenne". Baltriune may have used the name "George" Canning with the French government, while maintaining his Baltriune (Botrinne) Canning with the English. Civil War historians may have misread his signed name "George B. Canning" to be "George P. Canning." On the other hand, Baltriune being who he was, may have just added the P. for further obfuscation. George P. Canning, carrying a gunshot wound in his right lung, which he said came from the Battle of Shiloh, provided almost nothing of his family's identity while on board the "CSS Shenandoah" except that he had a wife in Paris, and a brother in Australia. Canning later migrated from England to Australia as well, where he surreptitiously went aboard the "CSS Shenandoah" to enlist one night, with several dozen other men, while the ship was anchored off Melbourne and signed aboard as a Petty Officer, an Orderly Sergeant in the Confederate States Marine Corps on February 18, 1865; placing his mark beside his name. William A. Temple in his affidavit, however, records his name as ‘H.C.' Canning; instead of his real name of George P. Canning. Once he revealed himself, George was immediately made Sergeant and placed in charge of the "Marine" (i.e., fighting) group. Like all French military men, George insisted on a great uniform, and was outfitted "cap a pie;" meaning ‘head to toe'. The "Shenandoah" was in the Bering Sea in late 1865 with two ships being towed behind carrying prisoners, the others having been scuttled. Then, two days out from San Francisco the English ship "Barracouta" encountered the "Shenandoah". Her captain informed the "Shenandoah" boarding officer that the war was over, and produced New York and San Francisco papers depicting the surrender of Lee; the capture of Richmond; the assassination of Lincoln, and the final collapse of the Confederacy. Captain Waddell then did something never done before or since in the annals of naval history; he sailed the "Shenandoah" from the Bering Sea to Liverpool, England; a distance of thousands of miles, without once coming in sight of land. George P. Canning, according to William A. Temple, is said to have died from the effects of his old wound, labelled "phthisis". George P. Canning was said to have been buried at sea on October 31, 1865, in the Atlantic Ocean. New research by the Canning descendants, however, tend to disprove the death and burial at sea of George P. Canning and thereby invalidating Temple's affidavit. the French-born-and-raised nephew of ‘George of Cleveland' Canning; The son of George's brother, Rafton Canning. In it, Gustave Perrot stated emphatically that his Uncle Botrinne, George P. Canning, "came home wounded, and stayed with us in our home in Nanterre, France for several months, and eventually died there". Moreover, Rafton Canning was the "owner of an ale and stout depot in London" and the father of George Canning of Cleveland, Ohio who was the uncle of Gustave Perrot; who wrote the letter.