McCormick , Robert , 1800-1890 , naval surgeon and Polar explorer

Robert McCormick was born in 1800 near Great Yarmouth; his father, also Robert McCormick, was a naval surgeon of Irish ancestry. McCormick junior studied surgery at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, London, under Sir Astley Cooper (1768-1841) and gained his diploma in 1822, becoming a naval surgeon in 1823 and being posted to the West Indies. In 1827 he sailed with the expedition of the Hecla, under the command of William Edward Parry (1790-1855), to the north of Spitsbergen. In the ensuing years he was assigned to the West Indies, Brazil, the blockade off Holland and the West Indies once again before leaving active service and going onto half-pay in 1829. During the period 1829-1839 he devoted himself to the study of geology and natural history. In 1839 he joined the Antarctic expedition of the Erebus, under the command of James Clark Ross (1800-1862), as surgeon and naturalist; the expedition concluding in 1843. During 1845-1848 he was assigned to ships based at Woolwich Dockyard and came into conflict with the Admiralty over promotion. During the search for the expedition of Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), lost in the Arctic, McCormick argued that an open boat might profitably search up the Wellington Channel and in 1852, as surgeon of the North Star, he was able to undertake this: he returned to England in 1853 and in 1854 published his Narrative of a Boat-Expedition up the Wellington Channel in the Year 1852 (London: Eyre and Spotteswoode, 1854). McCormick was not subsequently active as a naval surgeon and again spent time in conflict over promotion. He was placed on the retired list in 1865 and died in 1890.