MC CLURE

Sir Robert John Le Mesurier (son of Robert Mc Clure, captain 89 foot, d. 1806). b. Wexford 28 Jany. 1807; ed. at Eton and Sand hurst; entered navy 1824; mate of the Terror in her Arctic voyage 1836–7; commanded the Romney at Havana 1842–6; first lieut. of the Investigator in sir J. C. Ro ’s Arctic expedition 1848–9 and commander of her in Collins on’s expedition, sailed from Plymouth 20 Jany. 1850, discovered the north-west pa age 26 Oct. 1850, the Investigator was forced into a bay on the north shore of Banks’ Land 23 Sep. 1851 where in 1853 she was abandoned; cro ed Banks’s Strait to Winter harbour in Melville Island, April 1852; arrived in England in the North Star 28 Sep. 1854, tried by court martial for lo of his ship when honourably acquitted; captain 18 Dec. 1850; knighted at Windsor Castle 21 Nov. 1855; parliament awarded £10,000 to officers and crew of the Investigator 1855; captain of the Esk 1856; commanded a battalion of the naval brigade at capture of Canton, Dec. 1857; C.B. 20 May 1859; R.A. 20 March 1867, retired V.A. 29 May 1873; awarded good service pension 12 Sep. 1863. d. 25 Duke st. St. James’s, London 17 Oct. 1873. bur. Kensal Green cemet. 25 Oct. The north-west pa age. Capt. Mc Clure’s despatches (1853); S. Osborn’s Discovery of a north-west pa age 4 ed. (1865); A. Armstrong’s Discovery of the north-west pa age (1857); S. Cre well’s Eight sketches of the voyage of H.M.S. Investigator (1854); Graphic , viii 407, 412 (1873), portrait .