During the Second Opium War Eliott led a unit of 300 sailors and marines that successfully breached the walls of Canton and then led another unit that destroyed 23 Chinese war-junks in the estuary South of the city. After that, he led a small squadron of British ships which pursued a fleet of 41 Chinese war-junks at the Battle of Escape Creek: his squadron chased the war-junks upriver and then, once the British ships were grounded as the river narrowed, they chased them in the ships' boats until all the war-junks had been overhauled. He also took part in the larger action, under Commodore Henry Keppel, involving around 100 war-junks at the Battle of Fatshan Creek.
Elliott became commodore on the East Indies and China Station, with his broad pennant in the screw gunboatHMS Haughty, in January 1855.[1] In October 1856 a small unit of Chinese soldiers boarded the British-flagged lorchaArrow and kidnapped twelve of the crew so initiating the Second Opium War. The British Consul, Harry Parkes, demanded return of the men, an apology and assurances of respect for the British flag. The crew was released but without any apology or assurances.[2] In response the Commander-in-Chief on the East Indies and China Station, Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, decided to enter Canton.[2] In late October 1856, Eliott led a unit of 300 sailors and marines which successfully breached the walls of the city and then, in early November 1856, he led another unit which destroyed 23 Chinese war-junks in the estuary South of Canton.[2] After that, in May 1857, he led a small squadron of British ships which pursued a fleet of 41 Chinese war-junks at the Battle of Escape Creek: his squadron chased the war-junks upriver and then, once the British ships were grounded as the river narrowed, they chased them in the ships' boats until all the war-junks had been overhauled.[2] Elliot also took part in the larger action, under Commodore Henry Keppel, involving around 100 war-junks at the Battle of Fatshan Creek in June 1857.[1] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 12 September 1857.[3]
Elliott went on to be commanding officer of the third-rateHMS Cressy in the Mediterranean Fleet in April 1859 and commanding officer of the second-rate HMS St Jean d'Acre in the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1860.[4]
In 1863 Elliot married Louisa Blackett, daughter of Sir Edward Blackett, 6th Baronet; they had four children, three of whom died in infancy.[1] Following the death of his first wife, he married Lady Harriet Emily Liddell, daughter of Henry Liddell, 1st Earl of Ravensworth in 1874; they had three daughters and a son.[1]