Aubrey Howard Ninnis was commissioned as purser in SS AURORA on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1916, he was intended for the shore party but stranded when the AURORA broke adrift. He was on the Aurora Relief Expedition, 1916-1917; he died in New Zealand in 1956.
Born, 1902; US Navy, 1919-1923; educated, Lowell Institute, MIT, 1926; helped to build the first State Police Radio Station in Massachusetts, 1927; Massachusetts National Guard, 1925-1934; Chief Operator of the first TV station in Boston, 1929-1933; member of Byrd Antarctic Expedition, to rescue R Adm Richard Evelyn Byrd, 1934; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; Radio Engineer in charge of the US Army Signal Corps Arctic and Antarctic research teams, undertaking 23 polar expeditions, 1945-1965; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1962-1980; died, [1984].
Born, 1881; educated, Bedford Modern School; entered the Merchant Navy; appointment on the P and O line, 1899; second officer on HMS NIMROD for the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909; commander of the HMS AURORA and the Ross Sea party, for Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition, 1914-1916; died 1916.
Born, 1853; acting stipendiary magistrate, Fiji, 1885-1886; elephant hunter in connection to the African Lakes Corporation, East Africa; actively engaged in the defence of the recently founded Nyasaland Protectorate and played a leading role in the establishment of British rule in the region; Commissioner of British Central Africa, 1897-1910 (title known as Governor of the Nyasaland Protectorate from 1907); Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1891-1935; RGS Cuthbert Peek Award, 1898; Member of the Council of the RGS, 1913-1917; died, 1935.
Born, 1787; received some legal training; joined Royal Navy, 1803 and served off Spain and later in the West Indies; midshipman, 1804; stationed off Cadiz, 1909; on active service during the Napoleonic wars, and in 1810 was a lieutenant on the brig GRASSHOPPER; prisoner of war, 1811-1814; rejoined the Navy and saw active service in the war against the United States at the capture of Washington and the assaults on New Orleans; commander of the brig CALLIOPE; paid off in 1815 and placed on the reserve list; Edinburgh, 1815-1828; moved to London, 1828; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1830-1860; appointed the first Secretary of the Society at the RGS's inaugural meeting, 1830; Professor of Geography, University College London, 1833-1836; left England for Hobart Town as private secretary to Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Franklin, 1836; appointed Superintendent of the penal settlement at Norfolk Island, 1840-1844; Governor of the new prison at Birmingham, England, 1849-1851; died, 1860.
Publications: A Summary View of the Statistics and Existing Commerce of the Principal Shores of the Pacific Ocean, etc. (London, 1818).
Report on the State of Prison Discipline in Van Diemen's Land (London, 1838)
Born, 1916; wartime service in the Royal Engineers; lectured at University College Wales and Leicester; Professor of Geography at Sheffield and London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1941-1983; RGS Victoria Medal, 1974; died, 1982.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1935-1966.
Sir Charles Frederick Arden-Close was born on 10 August 1865 at St Saviour's, Jersey; educated at a dame-school in Rochester, then Thompson's school, Jersey, and at a crammer, passing second into the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1882. In 1884 he passed out first, with the Pollock memorial medal, was commissioned in the Royal Engineers, and joined the School of Military Engineering, Chatham. After a year in Gibraltar, 1886, he was first attached to and later commanded the balloon section at Chatham, 1887-1888. He was next posted to India; engaged on topographic work in Upper Burma and geodetic triangulation on the Mandalay primary series (Toungoo-Katha) and the Mong Hsat secondary series up to the Siam border.
Returning to Chatham, Close was sent in 1895 to West Africa to survey the boundary between the Niger Coast Protectorate and the German Cameroons; was appointed to the Ordnance Survey and in 1898 was made British commissioner to delimit the frontier of British Central Africa and Northern Rhodesia with German East Africa for over 200 miles between lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. Close collaborated with David Gill, HM astronomer at the Cape, in relation to longitude fixation of points on the German frontier; was appointed CMG in 1899 and in 1900 led a small survey detachment for the South African War, for which practically no maps existed. In 1902-1905 he was chief instructor in surveying at Chatham, introducing new methods and revising his earlier work, Text Book of Military Topography, part 2 (1898), to produce the Text Book of Topographical and Geographical Surveying (1905) which, with later revisions, remained the standard work for the next half-century.
In 1905 Close had become head of the topographical (from 1907 geographical) section, general staff, at the War Office, of which a major concern was overseas maps. He pressed, with success, for the formation of the colonial survey committee (August 1905) and for surveying in British colonies. Close and his directors in MI4, having experienced in South Africa the disadvantages of waging war without maps, took the unprecedented step of preparing maps of a probable European theatre of war. Due to the foresight of the geographical section, the British army entered World War One better supplied with maps than in any previous conflict.
Close was appointed director-general of the Ordnance Survey on 18 August 1911. He established three mean-sea level tidal stations, at Dunbar, Newlyn, and Felixstowe, and focused on the cartography of the Ordnance Survey with the intention of revolutionising the appearance of the map. In 1919, Close secured the appointment of a civilian archaeology officer, O. G. S. Crawford, resulting in a highly acclaimed series of historical maps of which the first was Roman Britain (1924). After the war Close had the task of implementing cuts in the Ordnance Survey establishment which had been recommended by the Geddes committee. A direct result of this was that the large-scale plans fell massively into arrears by the 1930s.
Close retired in 1922. He had served on the council of the Royal Geographical Society, 1904-1940, and was Victoria gold medallist, 1927, and President, 1927-1930. He was chairman of the National Committee for Geography and General Secretary of the International Geographical Union, being President in 1934-1938. He was first treasurer, 1919-1930, then chairman of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1930-1945, and President of the Hampshire Field Club, 1929-1932 and 1935-1936.
Close was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1919; received an honorary ScD from Cambridge, 1928; was an honorary member of the Russian, German, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish, and Swiss geographical societies. He was appointed CB in 1916 and KBE in 1918; he was an officer of the order of Leopold, and a member of the Afghan order of Astaur. Arden-Close died in Winchester, on 19 December 1952. His contribution to the cartography and history of the Ordnance Survey was recognised in 1980 with the formation of a society named after him: The Charles Close Society for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1902-1912.
FRGS 1882-1886
Born, 1786; educated, Merchant Taylors' School, 1793-; briefly articled to a London solicitor; joined the army as a volunteer, 1811 and served in the Peninsula and in Belgium; instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1818; led the expedition to trace the course of the Niger, 1822-1825; fellow of the Royal Society; appointment to reorganize the Liberated African department, Sierra Leone, 1827-1828; died, 1828.
Publications: Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa (1826)
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1913-1962.
Born, 1813; employed in a mill as a 'piecer', 1823; became involved with the London Missionary Society in 1838 and undertook a probationary year of scriptural studies to a clergyman in Chipping Ongar, Essex; moved to London for lectures on anatomy and medicine, 1840; licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 1840; ordained, Nov 1840; missionary in South Africa, 1841-1852; discovered Lake Ngami, 1849; crossing of Africa, 1852-1856; returned to Britain, 1856-1858; Royal Geographical Society gold medal, 1856; fellow of the Royal Society, 1858; Zambezi expedition, 1858-1864; in Britain, 1864-1865; returned to Africa for further expeditions, 1866-1873; died, 1873.
Born, 1905; educated, Welshpool county school, 1915-1922; read geography and anthropology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1922-1925; first post in geography at Queen's University, Belfast, 1928; Professor of Geography, Queen's University, Belfast, 1945-1968; first Director of the newly established Institute of Irish Studies, 1968; retired, 1970; Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1973; died, 1989.
Born, 1865; educated Cambridge University; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1886-1949; took cources in surveying, geology and botany; took part in a scheme for settling Santals in Bengal Duars, India; joined staff of RGS, 1894; Librarian of the RGS, 1901-1934; Research Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, 1933; RGS Victoria Medal, 1934; Librarian Emeritus, 1934-1949; died, 1949.
Born, 1904; educated as a scholar at Sedbergh School, -1921; lived with his family for a year in Germany; worked writing travel guides, 1923; wrote for newspapers, especially on birds, and by 1925 was well established; read modern history, Hertford College, Oxford, 1926-1929; set up the Oxford University Exploration Club, and took part in expeditions to Greenland and British Guiana; assistant editor of the Weekend Review, 1929; member of the think-tank Political and Economic Planning (PEP), 1931-; founder of the British Trust for Ornithology, 1933; chairman of the British Trust for Ornithology, 1947-1949; founder member of the Edward Grey Institute in Oxford, 1938; Head of Allocation of Tonnage Division, Ministry of War Transport, 1942-1945; Secretary, Office of The Lord President of the Council, 1945-1952; Member, Advisory Council on Scientific Policy, 1948-1964; Director-General of The Nature Conservancy, 1952-1966; participated in Guy Mountfort's expeditions to the Coto Doñana in 1957 and to Jordan in 1964; Lecturer, University of California, 1964; Convener, Conservation Section, International Biological Programme, 1963-1974; founder of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 1961; Secretary, Duke of Edinburgh's Study Conference on the Countryside in 1970, 1963; Albright chairman of Land Use Consultants, 1966-1989; chairman of the New Renaissance Group, 1966-; a Director and Managing Editor, Environmental Data Services Ltd, 1978-1980; President, RSPB, 1980-1985; President, Trust for Urban Ecology (formerly Ecological Parks Trust), 1987-1988; President, New Renaissance Gp, 1998-2000; died, 2003.
Publications:
Birds in England (1926)
How Birds Live (1927)
The Art of Bird-Watching (1931)
The System (1967)
The Environmental Revolution (1970)
The Big Change (1973)
Born 1850; began surveying as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy Surveying Service aboard the HMS NASSU, 1868; first charting work was in the Magellan Strait; China Station, 1870-1873; served aboard HMS ALERT under Capt Nares, 1878; service on board the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert, 1879; first command, hydrographic surveyor on HMS MAGPIE in the Sunda Strait and North East Borneo coasts, including surveying on the China Station, [1881-1883]; commissioned HMS RAMBLER and carried out extensive surveys in the Red Sea and in the East, 1884-; surveyed the Western Australian waters in HMS MYRMIDON; Professional Advisor to the Harbour Department at the Board of Trade, 1897-1900; watercolourist; Commander, 1881; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1881-1900; died 1900.
Born, 1819; entered the navy, 1831; passed his examination, 1838; promoted lieutenant on 29 July 1845, when serving in the steamer HMS GORGON on the South American station; served on the sloop HMS FROLIC in the Pacific, 1845-1847; appointed to the HMS ENTERPRISE (Captain Sir James Clark Ross) for a voyage to the Arctic, 1848; first lieutenant of the HMS ASSISTANCE in the Arctic, 1850-1851; commander of HMS INTREPID part of the Arctic expedition of five ships under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher, 1852-1854; commander of the FOX on the search for Sir John Franklin, 1854-1859; commanded the frigate HMS DORIS in the Mediterranean, 1861-1862; commissioned HMS AURORA for service with the channel squadron, 1863; commodore-in-charge at Jamaica, 1865-1868; Admiral-Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard, 1872-1877; Commander-in-Chief on the North America and West Indies station, 1879-1882; elected an elder brother of Trinity House, 1884; retired, 1884; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1880-1907; died, 1907.
Francis Skead was a surveyor in the Royal Navy. He was Second Master on board HMS ENTERPRISE to search for Franklin and his ships by way of the Bering Strait, 1849-1852; he invented the Skead sounder during telegraph survey operations between Malta and Crete off HMS TARTARUS, 1857 and accompanied David Livingstone to the mouth of the Zambesi, [1859-1861]. For most of his career he appears to have been Government Surveyor at the Cape, South Africa.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1958-1990
George Robert Farrar Prowse of Winnipeg, Canada was an expert in the study of maps and among the first to use maps to study the origin and nature of place names. He made a number of studies on the cartography of John Cabot's voyages.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1954- ; The Back Grant 1954; hydrographer of the British Navy.
Born, 1885; educated, Westminster School; Joined Survey of Egypt, 1907; conducted many survey expeditions in the deserts of Egypt; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1907-1966; Political Officer, Northern Red Sea Patrol, 1915; served with 7th Field Survey Coy RE in Sinai and Palestine, 1916-1919; Captain, 1918; Director, Desert Surveys, 1932-1937; Director, Topographical Survey, 1937-1947; Technical Expert, Survey of Egypt, 1948-1951; Member Council Fuad I Desert Institute, 1950; Founder's Medal Royal Geographical Society, 1936; President, Cairo Scientific Society, 1936-1938; Membre de l'Institut d'Egypte, 1938 (Vice-President, 1946-1947); died, 1966.
Publications: Sons of Ishmæl, 1935
Born, 1866; educated, Framlington; an Assistant in the British Central Africa Protectorate, 1900-1901; Oriental Secretary to the Legation at Tehran; HM Vice Consul, Tehran, 1903; transferred to Bushire, 1904; to Zanzibar, 1906; to Abidjean, West Africa, 1907; Acting Consul at Lorenzo Marques, 1910; Vice-Consul at Beira, 1910; Consul for the Society Islands, 1912; also a Deputy Commissioner for the Western Pacific, 1912; Acting Consul at Calais, 1916-1919; in charge at Callao, 1919; Consul there, 1919; in charge of the Legation at Lima, 1922 and 1923; Consul General, Chicago, 1923-1928; retired, 1928; died, 1957.
Born 1862; lived in the Congo Free State (Zaire), 1884-1889; member of Henry M Stanley's Emin Pasha Relief Expedition to the Congo, 1886-1889; returned to Europe, where he lectured and wrote on his experiences in the Congo Free State, 1889; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1893-1919; began formal art training, 1893 including studying sculpting in Paris; became a sculptor, creating bronzes of Africans and African life; died 1919.
Born John Rowlands, Wales, 1841; St Asaph Workhouse, 1847-1856; ran away to sea, 1858, and landed in New Orleans, here he changed his name to Henry Morton Stanley; joined the Confererate Army, 1861; enlisted in the Union Army; served as a clerk at the frigate Minnesota, 1864; worked as a free-lance journalist; newspaper correspondent, Turkey and Asia Minor; special correspondent for the New York Herald, 1867-1868; expedition to East Africa to find Livingstone, 1871; Royal Geographical Society (RGS), Patron's Medal, 1872; expedition to central Africa, 1874-1877; Honorary Fellow of the RGS, 1878-1904; lecturing tour in the United States, 1886; led the relief expedition in search of Emin Pasha, 1886-1890; sat in Parliament, 1895-1900; died, 1904.
Born, 1866; educated Dublin and Bournmouth; British Army officer, Lancers, 1888-1897; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1894-1939; travelled in Tibet, 1896-1899; RGS Founders medal, 1900; founder of the Deasy Motor Car Company, 1906; resigned, 1908; died, 1947.
Born, 1861; educated: Edinburgh University; worked on the Challenger reports; lecturer in geography; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1891-1950; Librarian of the RGS, 1892-1900; Director of the British Rainfall Organisation, 1900-1919; assisted in the organisation of the National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904; RGS Victoria Medal, 1915; Member of the Council of the RGS, 1927-1937; Vice-President of the RGS, 1927-1932; founder member of the Geographical Association and President, 1930-1933; died, 1950.
Publications: Realm of Nature (1891)
The record of the Royal Geographical Society, 1830-1930, (1930)
Harvey Trewythen Brabazon Combe was born in 1852, served in the East Sussex Regiment 1876-1897; JP for Sussex and Country Mayo; travelled widely in Europe, Asia and Australia; Fellow of the Royal Geogographical Society, 1881 and died in 1923.
The International Geographical Congress is currently the congress of the International Geographical Union which was established in Brussels in 1922. However, the history of international meetings of geographers is much longer. The first of a series of congresses met in 1871 in Antwerp.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1945-
Revised 1849 by J. P.
Born, 1842; second son of Sir Keith Alexander Jackson, 2nd Baronet and Lady Amelia Jackson; educated, Ordnance School, Carshalton; Magdalene College, Cambridge; 83 rd Foot; succeeded his brother who was murdered at Delhi, 1857; settled in Argentina; died, 1916.
Amelia Waddell, daughter of George Waddell married Sir Keith Alexander Jackson, 2nd Baronet, Feb 1834, she died, 1872.
Born Tasmania; studied physics and astronomy at Melbourne University; took part in the Southern Cross expedition, 1898; came to England, 1900; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1900-1942; physicist on the National Antarctic expedition, 1901-1904; Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (anti-submarine division) 1914-1919; Member of RGS Council 1929-31; RGS Medal.
Michael Corbert Andrews was born in ninetenth century Belfast; studied medieval and early modern maps; worked as a linen manufacturer in Belfast and became a keen historian of early maps and placenames. Andrews was a member of many learned societies; joined the Royal Geographical Society in 1919, becoming a generous donator to its collections of photographs of important maps, and was Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society 1919-1934. Andrews died in 1934.
Unknown
Born, 1823; Trinity College, Cambridge, 1840; embarked on travels, 1842, chiefly through Abyssinia and the Sudan; lived with the nomadic Kababish tribe as they roamed in the area around al-'Ubayd in the Sudan, 1846-1847; returned to England, 1849; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1849-1894; Assistant Secretary to the British embassy, Constantinople, 1850-1851; served on the RGS council, 1854; Comptroller of the Bankruptcy Court, 1864-1884; died, 1894.
Publications: Life in Abyssinia 2 vols, (1853), 2nd edition (1868)
Born, 1885; visited Russia representing the family timber firm, 1908; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1909-1973; scientific expedition to central Siberia as a botanist and geologist, 1910-1914; Russian correspondent for the Manchester Guardian during the First World War; travelled in and wrote on Russia, Germany, Turkey and Persia; entered Parliament, 1929 and served in the House of Commons for almost 30 years; Honorary Fellow of the RGS, 1972; died, 1973.
Born, 1844; educated in London, Paris, and Dresden; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1865; studied geography and surveying under the RGS's instructors; employed by merchant house, Barnet and Co., Shanghai, 1866; three expeditions to determine the new course of the Huang He or Yellow River, 1867, 1868, and 1869; crossed the Gobi Desert, 1872; founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1873; Member of the Council of the RGS; engaged by the Government of India, 1874; second in command of the overland mission from Burma to China; attached to Robert Shaw's abortive mission to Kashgar, 1877; joint commissioner of Ladakh; expedition over the Karakoram, 1879; visits to Kashgar, 1880 and 1885; special duty in connection with the Sikkim War, 1888-1889; first-class political agent, took command of a mission to report on the political geography and condition of the Shan States on the Burma-Siam frontier, 1889; agent to the Governor-General at Mashhad and Consul-General for Khorasan and Seitan, 1891; retired, 1896; died, 1897.
Born, 1867; educated at Newton School, Newton Abbott; Westminster School, 1881-1882; commission in the Royal Artillery, 1886; first posting to Trincomalee, in Ceylon, 1886; took a course of gunnery instruction at Shoeburyness, Essex, and was posted to Falmouth, Cornwall, 1890s; undercover officer sent to Morocco; undertook the War Office training on boundary survey and obtained a diploma; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1901-1930 (presumed deceased); Hong Kong, then to Ceylon, 1902; posted to Spike Island, co. Cork, 1903; chief Bolivian commissioner, leading a survey party from the falls of the Rio Madeira to the source of the Rio Acre, then down the Abuna, Bolivian boundary commission, 1906-1907; exploration of the unknown upper reaches of the Rio Heath, Bolivia-Peru boundary, 1908-; third boundary survey, Bolivia-Peru boundary, 1911; resigned from the Army; rejoined the Army in First World War, 158th brigade of the Royal Field Artillery, 1916-1919; expedition to Corumbá, on the border with Bolivia, 1920-1921; several journeys between the Rio São Francisco and the Atlantic coast before he re-equipped and set off alone into the interior; organised a final expedition to Brazil in 1925, the party vanished without trace.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1928-1931.
Born, 1905; educated, Upholland Grammar School; Leeds University, 1922-1925; diploma in education, 1926; assistant lecturer, Exeter University College, 1926-1928; assistant lecturer, University College London, 1928-1932; Rockefeller Fellowship, 1931-1932; lecturer, 1932-1941; reader, 1941-1947; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1946-1981; Professor, Syracuse University, 1947-1958; University of Leeds, 1958-; Visiting Professor to California, 1960-1961; Washington, Nebraska, 1963; Kansus State, 1964; Arizona, 1967; remained in the USA until his retirement, 1975; died, 1981.
Born in Pennsylvania, 1856; educated Bowdoin College, Maine; land surveyor; Civil Engineer Corps Officer in the United States Navy, 1881; engaged on the survey of the projected Nicaragua Ship Canal, 1885-1887; attempted to cross Greenland, 1886; naval dock construction in the US; second expedition to Greenland, 1891-1892; third expedition to Greenland, 1893-1895; expedition to the North Pole where he reached the northern limits of the Greenland archipelago, 1898-1902; second attempt to the North Pole, achieving a Farthest North world record at 87°06'; reached the North Pole, 1908-1909 (although this claim has been subject to doubt); awarded a special Gold Medal by the Royal Geographical Society; died, 1920.
Robert Shedden entered the Royal Navy and served throughout the [British attack on China, (the Opium War), 1840-1842] in which he was severely wounded; bought a schooner yacht, the 'Nancy Dawson', in which he accompanied the search for Sir John Franklin; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1844-1850. Died in Mexico, 1850.
Born 1835; educated Edinburgh, Cambridge and Heidelberg Universities; Scottish Member of Parliament for South Ayrshire, 1868-1874 and for Haddington Burghs, 1879-1882; lectured and wrote on his extensive travels including in Europe, North America, India, North Africa, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Japan, Middle East; Australia, New Zealand and Russia; died 1882.
Sir Edward Belcher, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 27 February 1799. Belcher entered the navy in April 1812, and after serving in several ships in the channel and on the Newfoundland station was a midshipman of the Superb (Captain Charles Ekins) at the bombardment of Algiers in August 1816. He was made lieutenant on 21 July 1818; appointed assistant surveyor to the Blossom, and in May 1825 sailed for the Pacific Ocean and Bering Strait on a voyage of exploration of more than three years. He was made commander on 16 March 1829, and from May 1830 to September 1833 commanded the Aetna, surveying parts of the west and north coasts of Africa.
Following this Belcher was employed for some time on the home survey, principally in the Irish sea, and in November 1836 was appointed to the Sulphur, a surveying ship. After visiting several of the island groups in the south Pacific and making such observations, Belcher arrived at Singapore in October 1840, where he was ordered back to China, due to war; during the following year he was actively engaged, especially in operations in the Canton River. He returned to England in July 1842, after a commission of nearly seven years. Belcher had already been advanced to post rank (6 May 1841) and was made a CB (14 October 1841); in January 1843 he was made a knight.
In November 1842 Belcher was appointed to the Samarang for the survey of the coast of China, which the recent war and treaty had opened to British trade. More pressing necessities, however, changed her field of work to Borneo, the Philippines, and Taiwan, and on these and neighbouring coasts Belcher was employed for nearly five years surveying and fighting pirates. In 1852 he was appointed to command an Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. The appointment was unfortunate; for Belcher, though an able and experienced surveyor, had already demonstrated that he had neither the temper nor the tact necessary for a commanding officer under circumstances of peculiar difficulty. Belcher was never employed again, though he attained his flag on 11 February 1861, became vice-admiral on 2 April 1866, and admiral on 20 October 1872. Belcher was a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society 1830-1877. He was made a KCB on 13 March 1867. He died on 18 March 1877.
Henry and Brigitte Spiro were living in New York, 1984.
Born, 1909; Trinity College, Cambridge, 1927-1930; Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich; Royal Academy Schools in London; held his first one-man exhibition at Ackermann's Galleries in London, 1933; made his living as a painter of wildfowl, producing his first book, Morning Flight, (Country Life, 1935) followed by Wild Chorus (1938); won a bronze medal in the 1936 Olympic games, for single-handed yachting; Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1939; founder and honorary director of the Severn Wildfowl Trust, Slimbridge, (later known as the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust) 1946; conducted scientific research in Iceland, 1951 and the Perry River region of northern Canada, 1949; helped to establish the natural history unit at the BBC Television Centre in Bristol; hosted the natural history programme 'Look' for seventeen years; became involved with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, early 1950s; helped build up the species survival commission of the Union and was chairman, 1962-1981; founded the World Wildlife Fund (later the World Wide Fund for Nature), 1961; rector of Aberdeen University, 1960-1963; appointed Chancellor of Birmingham University, 1974-1983; CH and a fellow of the Royal Society, 1987; died, 1989.
Sir Joseph Banks was born in London in 1743; educated at Harrow School, 1752-1756 and Eton College, 1756-1760, where he showed an interest in botany. Banks matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford and following his father's death in 1761 chose to devote himself to natural history. He was elected a Fellow of Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries, 1766 and in the same year undertook his apprenticeship as a scientifically trained Linnaean naturalist on an expedition to Labrador and Newfoundland. He later undertook the Endeavour voyage of 1768-1771 with James Cook. On his return in 1771, Banks was introduced to King George III, later becoming his friend and advisor on matters concerning science and agriculture.
Banks was president of the Royal Society from 1778 to 1820 and Virtual Director of Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, 1773. Banks was one of the founders of the Africa Society and promoted greater British involvement in the exploration of Africa. He was made a knight in Order of the Bath, 1795 and died in 1820.