Sir Alexander Armstrong ( – 4 July 1899) was an Irish

naval surgeon A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Speciali ...

, explorer, naturalist and author. After obtaining a medical degree he joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and was stationed on board , tasked with finding the lost expedition of explorer

Sir John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through t ...

. ''Investigator'' was trapped in the ice at

Mercy Bay Mercy Bay is a Canadian Arctic waterway in the Northwest Territories. It is a southern arm of M'Clure Strait on northeast Banks Island. The mouth of Castel Bay is less than to the west. These bays are a part of Aulavik National Park. HMS ''In ...

in 1851 and Armstrong spent several winters in the Arctic before he returned to London. Armstrong's account of the voyage, ''Personal narrative of the discovery of the north-west passage'', was published in 1857. It won the

Gilbert Blane Sir Gilbert Blane of Blanefield, 1st Baronet FRSE FRS MRCP (29 August 174926 June 1834) was a Scottish physician who instituted health reform in the Royal Navy. He saw action against both the French and Spanish fleets, and later served as a Co ...

gold medal for the best journal kept by a Royal Navy surgeon. He also published a second book entitled ''Observations on naval hygiene and scurvy, more particularly as the latter appeared during a polar voyage''. He continued in a career with the Royal Navy, serving in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

during the

Battle of Suomenlinna The Battle of Suomenlinna (also known as the Battle of Viapori or the Bombardment of Sweaborg) was fought on 9–11 August 1855 between Russian defenders and a joint United Kingdom, British/France, French fleet during the Åland War. It was a pa ...

. He was also superintendent of hospitals in Malta and England and he became director-general of the Royal Navy's medical department in 1869. He was knighted into the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

in 1871.

Early life and family

Armstrong was born in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great B ...

. His father was Alexander Armstrong. He studied medicine in Dublin and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, graduating from the latter as a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

with honours.

Arctic expedition

In 1842 he joined the

as an assistant surgeon. He travelled throughout the British Empire and many parts of the world, including the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

, Pacific Islands, North and South America, and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. He was promoted to surgeon in 1849. HMS Investigator stuck in ice (cropped)

In 1850, Armstrong left London aboard as a surgeon and naturalist. The ship was part of the

McClure Arctic expedition The McClure Arctic expedition of 1850, among numerous British search efforts to determine the fate of the Franklin's lost expedition, is distinguished as the voyage during which the Irish explorer Robert McClure became the first person to confirm ...

tasked with finding

Franklin's lost expedition Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and , and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest ...

. The ship completed the tracing of the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...

and tried to sail around

Banks Island Banks Island is one of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago. Situated in the Inuvik Region, and part of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, of the Northwest Territories, it is separated from Victoria Island to its east by the Prince of ...

, but became trapped by the ice at

in 1851, and spent two winters trapped there. Armstrong was not popular amongst the other officers, and the missionary amongst the crew, Johann August Miertsching, noted an incident where Armstrong's roommates were interacting roughly with him. During this time, Armstrong collected fossils on Banks and

Victoria Island Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the List of islands by area, eighth-largest island in the world, ...

. Armstrong and the crew were rescued by HMS ''Resolute'' in 1853. Armstrong was unable to bring his animal and plant collection with him, but did retrieve his journals against the orders of his captain

Robert John Le Mesurier McClure Vice-Admiral Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (28 January 1807 – 17 October 1873) was an Irish explorer of Scots descent who explored the Arctic. In 1854 he traversed the Northwest Passage by boat and sledge, and was the first to ci ...

, and a specimen of petrified wood from the

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

period. Armstrong and the crew had to spend another winter in the Arctic before they returned to England aboard supply ships for another expedition in search of the Franklin voyage. During this travel he also collected seven

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...

specimens on

Beechey Island Beechey Island ( iu, Iluvialuit, script=Latn) is an island located in the Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut, Canada, in Wellington Channel. It is separated from the southwest corner of Devon Island by Barrow Strait. Other features include Wellington C ...

Publication career

In 1857, Armstrong published his journals of the HMS ''Investigator'' expedition called ''Personal narrative of the discovery of the north-west passage''. This was the third account of the expedition: it confirmed the emotions expressed in Miertsching's published journals, while contradicting McClure's claims that the crew would have survived if they were not rescued. The book was awarded the

gold medal for the best journal kept by a Royal Navy surgeon. In 1858 he published ''Observations on naval hygiene and scurvy, more particularly as the latter appeared during a polar voyage''. The book is based on his experiences while trapped in the Arctic, and outlines the measures the crew took to prevent getting scurvy and how they treated it once the condition started appearing.

Later life and death

Armstrong completed many seagoing appointments with the Royal Navy. He was in the

during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

and participated in the

. He was promoted to deputy-inspector general after surviving two attacks by a flotilla of boats in 1858. He was transferred to the

Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...

as superintendent of naval hospitals in Malta,

Haslar Haslar is on the south coast of England, at the southern tip of Alverstoke, on the Gosport peninsula, Hampshire. It takes its name from the Old English , meaning "hazel-landing place". It may have been named after a bank of hazel strewn on mars ...

, and

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

. In 1869, he became director-general of the Royal Navy's medical department. He was knighted into the

in 1871. He also received the Arctic Medal,

Baltic Medal The Baltic Medal was a campaign medal approved on 6 June 1856, for issue to officers and men of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Royal Sappers and Miners who served between March 1854 and August 1855 in the Baltic Sea operations against Russia ...

, and a Jubilee Medal. He retired in 1880. Armstrong married Charlotte Hall () in 1894. He died on 4 July 1899 in his home in

Sutton Bonington Sutton Bonington () is a village and civil parish lying along the valley of the River Soar in the Borough of Rushcliffe, south-west Nottinghamshire, England. The University of Nottingham has a site just to the north of the village: Sutton Boni ...

, England.

Legacy

Croton armstrongli Croton may refer to: Biology * Crotoneae, a tribe of the flowering plant subfamily Crotonoideae * ''Croton'' (plant), a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae **'' Croton capitatus'', also known as the woolly croton **'' Croton hancei'', a spec ...

'' is named for Armstrong, after he collected a sample of the tree on an expedition to

Port Essington Port Essington is an inlet and historic site located on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It was the site of an early attempt at British settlement, but now exists only as a remote ...

. In the 1980s, the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory surveyed the closed forests of the area and could not find a specimen of ''C. armstrongli''. It is possible that the location of the specimen's collection was incorrectly labelled.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Alexander 19th-century explorers 19th-century Royal Navy personnel 1818 births 1899 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Explorers of Canada Explorers of the Arctic Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Fellows of the Royal Society Irish Arctic explorers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People from County Donegal Recipients of the Polar Medal Royal Navy Medical Service officers Royal Navy officers