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 Specialis ...

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

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

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, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and thro ...

. ''Investigator'' was trapped in the ice at Mercy Bay 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 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 the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

during the Battle of Suomenlinna. 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 King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

in 1871.

Early life and family

Armstrong was born in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

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

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, graduating from the latter as a

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, Pacific Islands, North and South America, and the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. He was promoted to surgeon in 1849. In 1850, Armstrong left London aboard as a surgeon and naturalist. The ship was part of the McClure Arctic expedition 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 lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

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 Mercy Bay 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. 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, and a specimen of petrified wood from the

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

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 (biology), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of 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 e ...

specimens on Beechey Island.

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 Gilbert Blane 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 between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

and participated in the Battle of Suomenlinna. 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 ...

as superintendent of naval hospitals in Malta, Haslar, and Chatham. 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, 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, England.

Legacy

'' Croton armstrongli'' 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 remot ...

. 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 Royal Navy personnel 1810s births 1899 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Explorers of Canada Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Fellows of the Royal Society Irish explorers of the Arctic Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Military personnel from County Donegal Recipients of the Polar Medal Royal Navy Medical Service officers Royal Navy officers Irish officers in the Royal Navy 19th-century Irish explorers