Biography: Sir Alexander Armstrong (1818-1899) - Explorer, Survivor, and Arctic Chronicler
Courtesy of the Monreagh Heritage Centre
This file of the Biography: Sir Alexander Armstrong (1818-1899) - Explorer, Survivor, and Arctic Chronicler forms part of the vast archive of 3,000+ pages of genealogical records relating to COUNTIES TYRONE, DONEGAL, LONDONDERRY & FERMANAGH provided without charge or subscription by CoTyroneIreland Welcome to the Premier Website & Research Tool for Cos. Tyrone, Donegal, Londonderry & Fermanagh Genealogy (cotyroneireland.com). A complete list of records pertaining to County Donegal, Northern Ireland on this website can be found at the foot of this file.
Explorer and surgeon, Sir Alexander Armstrong was born in Co. Donegal in 1818. He studied medicine in Dublin and the University of Edinburgh where he then graduated as a Doctor of Medicine. In 1842, he started as an assistant surgeon for the Royal Navy where he travelled throughout the British Empire and many other places such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific Islands, the Americas and the West Indies. In 1849, he was promoted to surgeon. He sailed on the HMS Investigator as a member of the McClure Arctic Expedition in 1850. The mission was to locate the lost Franklin Expedition before becoming trapped themselves in the ice of Mercy Bay in 1851.
During this time, Armstrong collected fossils and studied the surrounding area of Victoria Island. The HMS Investigator spent two winters in the Arctic Ice before being rescued by the HMS Resolute in 1853. Despite being unwillingly stranded for two years, Armstrong and the crew had to stay another winter before travelling back to England. Armstrong continued to collect specimens and even saved his journals from the old ship, disregarding his captain's orders.
In 1857, Armstrong published his rescued journals and called them “Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the north-west Passage” which was a third account of the expedition and in 1858 published another book called “Observations on Naval Hygiene and Scurvy, more particularly as the latter appeared during a polar voyage” describing his time being stranded in the artic. His writings awarded him a Gilbert Blane gold medal for the best-kept journal by a Royal Navy surgeon. Armstrong received many awards, such as being knighted into the Order of the Bath in 1971, the Arctic Medal, the Baltic Medal, and a Jubilee Medal before his retirement in 1880 and his death in 1899.
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