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Founders' Medal
The Founder's Medal is a medal awarded annually by the Royal Geographical Society, upon approval of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, to individuals for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery". Foundation From its foundation, the society received an annual grant from the Sovereign of the United Kingdom for awards with royal approval. The medal originated from an annual donation starting in 1831 of 50 guineas from King William IV. The award was instituted as the Royal Premium or Royal Award, an annual cash prize. In 1836, the society with agreement from King William IV, decided to allocate half of the premium to a 'Gold Medal'. This would be awarded by the Sovereign, on the advice of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society. Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne before the first gold medal, which was designed in coordination with King William IV, was awarded. Queen Victoria announced her intention of continuing the grant commenced by her un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Mason (geographer)
Lieut-Colonel Kenneth Mason MC (10 September 1887 – 2 June 1976) was a British soldier and explorer notable as the first statutory professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. His work surveying the Himalayas was rewarded in 1927 with a Royal Geographical Society Founder's Medal, the citation reading ''for his connection between the surveys of India and Russian Turkestan, and his leadership of the Shaksgam Expedition''. Personal life Kenneth Mason was born at Sutton, Surrey, the son of Ellen Martin (née Turner) and Stanley Engledue Mason, a timber broker. He was educated first at Homefield Preparatory School, where he was savagely beaten, but regarded such treatment with equanimity, offering the opinion that "If every silly ass that grows a beard and sits down in the London roads to demonstrate had been well and truly beaten when young, he too might have learned sense!". Mason went on to Cheltenham College, where he excelled in Mathematics and prepared for exams requi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Lander
Richard Lemon Lander (8 February 1804 – 6 February 1834) was a British explorer of western Africa. He and his brother John were the first Europeans to follow the course of the River Niger, and discover that it led to the Atlantic. Biography Lander was the son of a Truro innkeeper, born in the Fighting Cocks Inn (later the Dolphin Inn). Educated at 'Old Pascoe’s’ in Coombs Lane, Truro, until 1817 when, aged 13, he accompanied a merchant to the West Indies, where he suffered an attack of yellow fever in San Domingo. Returning home in 1818, he gained employment as a servant to several wealthy London families with whom he travelled in Europe. Lander's explorations began as a servant to the Scottish explorer Hugh Clapperton with whom he went in 1823 to the Cape Colony, and then on to an expedition to Western Africa in 1825. Clapperton died on 13 April 1827 near Sokoto, in present-day Nigeria, leaving Lander as the only surviving European member of the expedition. He procee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet
Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. His son, also Henry, was to become a senior commander in the British Army during World War I. Early life and army service Rawlinson was born on 5 April 1810, at the place now known as Chadlington, Oxfordshire, England. He was the second son of Abram Tyack Rawlinson, and elder brother of the historian George Rawlinson. In 1827, having become proficient in the Persian language, he was sent to Persia in company with other British officers to drill and reorganize the Shah's troops. Disagreements between the Persian court and the British government ended in the departure of the British officers. Rawlinson began to study Persian inscriptions, more particularly those in the cuneiform character, which had only been partially deciphered by Grotefend and Saint-Martin. From 1836 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Simpson (crop)
Thomas Simpson FRS (20 August 1710 – 14 May 1761) was a British mathematician and inventor known for the eponymous Simpson's rule to approximate definite integrals. The attribution, as often in mathematics, can be debated: this rule had been found 100 years earlier by Johannes Kepler, and in German it is called Keplersche Fassregel. Biography Simpson was born in Sutton Cheney, Leicestershire. The son of a weaver, Simpson taught himself mathematics. At the age of nineteen, he married a fifty-year old widow with two children. As a youth, he became interested in astrology after seeing a solar eclipse. He also dabbled in divination and caused fits in a girl after 'raising a devil' from her. After this incident, he and his wife had to flee to Derby. He moved with his wife and children to London at age twenty-five, where he supported his family by weaving during the day and teaching mathematics at night. From 1743, he taught mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Simpson (explorer)
Thomas Simpson (2 July 1808 – 14 June 1840) was a Scottish Arctic explorer, Hudson's Bay Company fur trader, and cousin of Company Governor Sir George Simpson. He helped chart the northern coasts of Canada. He died by violence near the Turtle River while traveling through the wilderness in what is now the U.S. state of North Dakota but was then part of the Territory of Iowa. The circumstances of his final hours—in which he allegedly killed himself after gunning down two companions—have long been a subject of controversy. Early life Simpson was born in Dingwall, Ross-shire, Scotland, the son of magistrate Alexander Simpson (1751–1821), a schoolteacher, by his second wife Mary, who had helped raise George Simpson. Thomas had a half-brother, Aemilius, and a full brother, Alexander. He was a sickly and timid youth, avoiding rough sport. After his father's death the family ended up in financial distress, but despite this he was given a proper education. Simpson was edu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Francis Rawdon Chesney 1863
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. March 2021. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/77489?rskey=dCKrg4&result=1 (accessed May 11, 2021) The term ''general'' is used in two ways: as the generic title for all grades of general officer and as a specific rank. It originates in the 16th century, as a shortening of '' captain general'', which rank was taken from Middle French ''capitaine général''. The adjective ''general'' had been affixed to officer designations since the late medieval period to indicate relative superiority or an extended jurisdiction. Today, the title of ''general'' is known in some countries as a four-star rank. However, different countries use different systems of stars or other insignia for senior ranks. It has a NATO rank ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Rawdon Chesney
Francis Rawdon Chesney (16 March 1789 – 30 January 1872) was a British general and explorer. Life He was a son of Captain Alexander Chesney, an Irishman of Scottish descent who, having emigrated to South Carolina in 1772, served under Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings, Lord Rawdon (afterwards Marquess of Hastings) in the American Revolutionary War, American War of Independence, and subsequently received an appointment as coast officer at Annalong, County Down, Ireland. F. R. Chesney was born there, on 16 March 1789. Lord Rawdon gave the boy a cadetship at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and he was gazetted to the Royal Artillery in 1805. But though he rose to be lieutenant-general and colonel-commandant of the 14th brigade Royal Artillery (1864), and general in 1868, Chesney's memory lives not for his military record, but for his connection with the Suez Canal, and with the exploration of the Euphrates valley, which started with his being sent out to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Fitzroy
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra del Fuego and the Southern Cone. FitzRoy was a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate daily weather predictions, which he called by a new name of his own invention: "forecasts". In 1854 he established what would later be called the Met Office, and created systems to get weather information to sailors and fishermen for their safety. He was an able surveyor and hydrographer. As Governor of New Zealand, serving from 1843 to 1845, he tried to protect the Māori from illegal land sales claimed by British settlers. Early life and career Robert FitzRoy was born at Ampton Hall, Ampton, Suffolk, England, into the upper echelons of the British aristocracy and a tradition of public service. Through his father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, Robe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert FitzRoy
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra del Fuego and the Southern Cone. FitzRoy was a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate daily weather predictions, which he called by a new name of his own invention: "forecasts". In 1854 he established what would later be called the Met Office, and created systems to get weather information to sailors and fishermen for their safety. He was an able surveyor and hydrographer. As Governor of New Zealand, serving from 1843 to 1845, he tried to protect the Māori from illegal land sales claimed by British settlers. Early life and career Robert FitzRoy was born at Ampton Hall, Ampton, Suffolk, England, into the upper echelons of the British aristocracy and a tradition of public service. Through his father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, Robe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Back
Admiral Sir George Back (6 November 1796 – 23 June 1878) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer of the Canadian Arctic, naturalist and artist. He was born in Stockport. Career As a boy, he went to sea as a volunteer in the frigate in 1808 and took part in the destruction of batteries on the Spanish coast. In the following year, he was involved in combat in the Bay of Biscay, until he was captured by the French. Back remained a prisoner at Verdun until the peace of early 1814; during this time he studied French and mathematics and practised his skills as an artist, which he later put to use in recording his travels through the Canadian Arctic. Following his release, Back served on and as a midshipman before volunteering to serve under John Franklin in his first expedition to the Arctic in 1818. Back also served under Franklin in his two overland expeditions to survey the northern coast of North America, first on the Coppermine expedition—when Back was respon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Burnes
Captain Sir Alexander Burnes (16 May 1805 – 2 November 1841) was a Scottish explorer, military officer, and diplomat associated with the Great Game. He was nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and exploring Bukhara. His memoir, ''Travels into Bokhara'', was a bestseller when it was first published in 1835. Early life Burnes was born on 16 May 1805 in Montrose, Scotland, as the fourth son of James Burnes (1780–1852) the local provost, who was first cousin to the poet Robert Burns. His brother was the doctor and surgeon James Burnes. At the age of sixteen, Alexander joined the army of the East India Company and while serving in India, he learned Urdu and Persian, and obtained an appointment as interpreter at Surat in 1822. He was transferred to Kutch in 1826 where he was based at Bhuj for three years. As assistant to the political agent, he took an interest in the history and geography of north-western India and the adjacent countri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Ross (1777-1856), By British School Of The 19th Century
John or Jack Ross may refer to: Entertainment * John Ross (author) (born 1957), American author of the 1996 novel ''Unintended Consequences'' * John F. Ross (author), American historian and author * John Ross (publisher), printer and publisher in 19th century Newcastle * John Ross (artist) (fl. 1996), British comic book artist * Jack Ross (musician) (1916–1982), rock and roll singles in 1962 * Jack Ross (writer) (born 1962), New Zealand poet and novelist * John Ross Ewing III, character in the TV series ''Dallas'' * John A. Ross (composer) (1940–2006), African American jazz musician, composer and choral conductor Law * John Ross of the Inner Temple (1563–1607), English barrister and poet * John Wesley Ross (1841–1902), American attorney in Washington, D.C. * Sir John Ross, 1st Baronet (1853–1935), Irish judge and Unionist politician * John Rolly Ross (1899–1963), U.S. federal judge * John William Ross (1878–1925), U.S. federal judge * John Wilson Ross (1863–19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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