Alexander George Findlay (1812–1875) was an English geographer and hydrographer. His services to geography have been compared with those of Aaron Arrowsmith and August Heinrich Petermann.

Life

Findlay was born in London, 6 January 1812, a descendant of the Findlays of

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. The ...

, Forfarshire. His grandfather was a shipowner there, who moved his business to the River Thames. Findlay's father, Alexander Findlay was one of the original fellows of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. The son Alexander George Findlay devoted himself to the compilation of geographical and hydrographical works. On the death of John Purdy, the hydrographer, in 1843, he took a leading position. In 1844 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and was a member of its council and committees. His researches in meteorology attracted the attention of Robert FitzRoy. On the death of Richard Holland Laurie of Laurie & Whittle, the London geographical and print publisher, in 1858, Findlay took over the business. In 1885, when Van Keulen of Amsterdam, founded in 1678, was dissolved, it became the oldest active firm in Europe for the publication of charts and nautical works. Findlay died at

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

on 3 May 1875.

Works

Findlay's atlases of ''Ancient and Comparative Geograph'' were known internationally. In 1851 he completed the revision of Richard Brookes's ''Gazetteer'', and the same year published his first major work, on the ''Coasts and Islands of the Pacific Ocean'', in 2 vols. of 1,400 pages. Findlay issued six large nautical directories, which have proved invaluable to the maritime world. They included ''The North Atlantic Ocean'', ''The South Atlantic Ocean'', ''The Indian Ocean'', ''Indian Archipelago, China, and Japan'', ''The South Pacific Ocean'', and ''The North Pacific Ocean''. Sir Henry Rawlinson commented that these works had become standard authorities; he also executed a series of charts widely used by the mercantile marine. The Society of Arts awarded Findlay its medal for his dissertation on ''The English Lighthouse System''. Subsequently, he published ''Lighthouses and Coast Fog Signals of the World''. He also wrote a paper on the connection of Lake Tanganyika with the Nile, accompanying it by a comparative series of maps relating to the northern end of the lake. Findlay served on various committees appointed by the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

, and contributed the following papers to section E: at Liverpool in 1853, ''On the Currents of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans''; Exeter, 1869, ''On the Gulf Stream, and its supposed influence upon the Climate of N.-W. Europe''. Findlay's publications came to 10,000 pages. He contributed several papers to the ''Journal'' of the Royal Geographical Society, the ''Transactions of the Royal United Service Institution'', and the ''Transactions of the Society of Arts''. At the time of Sir John Franklin's loss he sifted all the possible routes; and as a member of the Arctic committee of the Royal Geographical Society worked on the arguments which induced the government to send out the

Alert and Discovery expedition The British Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876, led by Sir George Strong Nares, was sent by the British Admiralty to attempt to reach the North Pole via Smith Sound. Although the expedition failed to reach the North Pole, the coasts of Greenland a ...

of 1875. Findlay devoted much time to the labours of his friend David Livingstone, in central Africa, and he also investigated the

sources of the Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...

. For the record of the

Burton and Speke explorations Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...

during 1858–59 he constructed a map of the routes traversed. In 1870 the Società Geografica Italiana elected him one of its foreign honorary members.

References

Archive Alexander Findlay
Royal museum of central Africa ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Findlay, Alexander George 1812 births 1875 deaths Publishers (people) from London English hydrographers English geographers 19th-century geographers 19th-century English businesspeople