George Francis Lyon
Encyclopedia
George Francis Lyon was a rare combination of Arctic
and Africa
n explorer. By all accounts a fun loving extrovert, he also managed to be a competent British
Naval Officer, Commander
, explorer
, artist
and socialite
. While not having a particularly distinguished career, he is remembered for the entertaining journals he kept and for the watercolour paintings he completed in the Arctic.
He was, in 1818, sent with Joseph Ritchie
by Sir John Barrow
to find the course of the Niger River
and the location of Timbuktu
. The expedition was underfunded, lacked support and because the ideas of John Barrow departed from Tripoli
and thus had to cross the Sahara
as part of their journey. A year later, due to much officialdom they had only got as far as Murzuk
where they both fell ill. Ritchie never recovered and died there, but Lyon survived and travelled a little further around the region. Exactly a year to the day he left, he arrived back in Tripoli, the expedition being a complete failure.
Having been promised a promotion on his return, he now set about trying to pester the Admiralty
into fulfilling their promise. He irritated enough people that his reward was, in 1821, to be given the command of HMS Hecla
under William Edward Parry
on his second attempt at the Northwest Passage
. The lieutenants included Francis Crozier
, James Clark Ross
, and Henry Parkyns Hoppner
.
An aspect of his personality rare at the time was his genuine interest in the "Natives" of the countries he visited. Wearing Arab
/Muslim
dress and learning fluent Arabic
he managed to blend in with the inhabitants of North Africa
; he was tattooed by the Inuit
in the Arctic, using needle and sooty thread, and ate raw caribou
and seal
meat with them. The expedition achieved little, spending two years in the Arctic and getting only as far the Fury and Hecla Strait
before being stopped by ice. But the information recorded about the Inuit tribes that he met proved valuable to later generations of anthropologists, such as Franz Boas
and Knud Rasmussen, who relied on his journals as a reference point for their own observations.
Lyon received his promotion to Captain on his return, and in 1824 was given sole command of HMS Griper for another voyage to the Arctic. Unfortunately the Griper was badly built and Lyon also met with some of the worst weather yet seen in the Arctic. The expedition was a disaster, Lyon limping home after only 5 months.
While he was well known in society, this last failure effectively saw him blacklisted in the Royal Navy
and he never had another command. He was elected in Nov 1827 a Fellow of the Royal Society
He died on October 8, 1832, en-route from South America
to Britain to be treated for eye problems.
and Elizabeth Aspinwall.
He married Lucy Louisa, elder daughter of the Irish revolutionary Lord Edward Fitzgerald
, on 5 September 1825. They had a daughter, Lucy Pamela Sophia Lyon, born in Sept. 1826. Lucy Louisa Lyon died that same month, while her husband was away in Mexico. He did not find out about her death until he landed at Holyhead, having survived the wreck of the ship bringing him home. His daughter went on to marry Rev. Thomas Ovens in 1849, had three children, and died in 1904.
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n explorer. By all accounts a fun loving extrovert, he also managed to be a competent British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Naval Officer, Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
, explorer
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
, artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
. While not having a particularly distinguished career, he is remembered for the entertaining journals he kept and for the watercolour paintings he completed in the Arctic.
Career
Joseph Ritchie
Doctor Joseph Ritchie was an English surgeon, explorer and naturalist.In 1818 Ritchie was sent with George Francis Lyon by Sir John Barrow to find the course of the River Niger and the location of Timbuktu...
by Sir John Barrow
Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet
Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet, FRS, FRGS was an English statesman.-Career:He was born the son of Roger Barrow in the village of Dragley Beck, in the parish of Ulverston then in Lancashire, now in Cumbria...
to find the course of the Niger River
Niger River
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
and the location of Timbuktu
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
. The expedition was underfunded, lacked support and because the ideas of John Barrow departed from Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
and thus had to cross the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
as part of their journey. A year later, due to much officialdom they had only got as far as Murzuk
Murzuk
Murzuk is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya. Murzuk lies on the northern edge of the Murzuq Desert, a desert of ergs or great sand dunes, and section of the Sahara Desert.-History:...
where they both fell ill. Ritchie never recovered and died there, but Lyon survived and travelled a little further around the region. Exactly a year to the day he left, he arrived back in Tripoli, the expedition being a complete failure.
Having been promised a promotion on his return, he now set about trying to pester the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
into fulfilling their promise. He irritated enough people that his reward was, in 1821, to be given the command of HMS Hecla
HMS Hecla (1815)
HMS Hecla was a Royal Navy Hecla-class bomb vessel of 372 tons. Launched on 15 July 1815, she saw wartime service in an attack on Barbary pirates at Algiers in August, 1816...
under William Edward Parry
William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer, who in 1827 attempted one of the earliest expeditions to the North Pole...
on his second attempt at the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
. The lieutenants included Francis Crozier
Francis Crozier
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier was born in Ireland at Banbridge, County Down and was a British naval officer who participated in six exploratory expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic...
, James Clark Ross
James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...
, and Henry Parkyns Hoppner
Henry Parkyns Hoppner
Captain Henry Parkyns Hoppner was an officer of the Royal Navy, Arctic explorer, and draughtsman/artist...
.
An aspect of his personality rare at the time was his genuine interest in the "Natives" of the countries he visited. Wearing Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
/Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
dress and learning fluent Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
he managed to blend in with the inhabitants of North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
; he was tattooed by the Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
in the Arctic, using needle and sooty thread, and ate raw caribou
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
and seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
meat with them. The expedition achieved little, spending two years in the Arctic and getting only as far the Fury and Hecla Strait
Fury and Hecla Strait
Fury and Hecla Strait is a narrow channel of water located in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. Situated between Baffin Island and Melville Peninsula it connects Foxe Basin, to the east, with the Gulf of Boothia, to the west....
before being stopped by ice. But the information recorded about the Inuit tribes that he met proved valuable to later generations of anthropologists, such as Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
and Knud Rasmussen, who relied on his journals as a reference point for their own observations.
Lyon received his promotion to Captain on his return, and in 1824 was given sole command of HMS Griper for another voyage to the Arctic. Unfortunately the Griper was badly built and Lyon also met with some of the worst weather yet seen in the Arctic. The expedition was a disaster, Lyon limping home after only 5 months.
While he was well known in society, this last failure effectively saw him blacklisted in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
and he never had another command. He was elected in Nov 1827 a Fellow of the Royal Society
He died on October 8, 1832, en-route from South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
to Britain to be treated for eye problems.
Personal life
He was the elder son of Lieutenant–Colonel George Lyon of the 11th Light Dragoons and Louisa Alexandrina Hart. She was in turn the second daughter of Sir William Neville HartWilliam Neville Hart
William Neville Hart was a British banker, politician and diplomat. He was born to Denise Gougeon, the wife of Lewis Augustus Blondeau. His mother was the Under Housekeeper or Mistress of the King’s Household, a position she was to hold for more than fifty years...
and Elizabeth Aspinwall.
He married Lucy Louisa, elder daughter of the Irish revolutionary Lord Edward Fitzgerald
Lord Edward FitzGerald
Lord Edward FitzGerald was an Irish aristocrat and revolutionary. He was the fifth son of the 1st Duke of Leinster and the Duchess of Leinster , he was born at Carton House, near Dublin, and died of wounds received in resisting arrest on charge of treason.-Early years:FitzGerald spent most of his...
, on 5 September 1825. They had a daughter, Lucy Pamela Sophia Lyon, born in Sept. 1826. Lucy Louisa Lyon died that same month, while her husband was away in Mexico. He did not find out about her death until he landed at Holyhead, having survived the wreck of the ship bringing him home. His daughter went on to marry Rev. Thomas Ovens in 1849, had three children, and died in 1904.
Publications
He published at least three books about his adventures:- A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa in the Years 1818, 19, and 20..., London (1821)
- The Private Journal of Captain G.F. Lyon, of H.M.S. Hecla, During the Recent Voyage of Discovery under Captain Parry (1824)
- A Brief Narrative Of An Unsuccessful Attempt To Reach Repulse Bay In His Majesty's Ship Griper, In The Year MDCCCXXIV, London (1825)
External links
- http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/results/arch.php?FormName=MIKAN+Items+Display&PageNum=1&SortSpec=score+desc&Language=eng&QueryParser=lac_mikan&Sources=mikan&Archives=&SearchIn_1=&SearchInText_1=George+Francis+Lyon&Operator_1=AND&SearchIn_2=&SearchInText_2=&Operator_2=AND&SearchIn_3=&SearchInText_3=&Media=&Level=&MaterialDateOperator=after&MaterialDate=&DigitalImages=&Source=&ResultCount=10&cainInd=Paintings and etchings based on drawings by Capt. Lyon], in the National Archives of Canada