Bauzá, Felipe (1764–1834), hydrographer, was born in Palma, Majorca, in the Spanish Balearic Islands. He entered the Spanish navy at the age of fifteen, and experienced active service as he rose through the ranks. His career as a hydrographer began under Tofiño y Varela...
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Sir Francis Beaufort (1774–1857) by Stephen Pearce, 1855–6 © National Maritime Museum, London, Greenwich Hospital Collection
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J. K. Laughton
revised by N. A. M. Rodger
Beaufort, Sir Francis (1774–1857), naval officer and hydrographer, was born on 27 May 1774 at Flower Hill, Navan, co. Meath, the second son of the Revd Daniel Augustus Beaufort (1739–1821), rector of Navan, a topographer and architect of some distinction, and his wife, ...
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Frederick William Beechey (1796–1856) by Stephen Pearce, 1850 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
J. K. Laughton
revised by Andrew Lambert
Beechey, Frederick William (1796–1856), naval officer and hydrographer, son of Sir William Beechey, RA (1753–1839), and his second wife, Anne Phyllis Beechey, née Jessop (1764–1833) [see under Beechey, Sir William], the miniature painter, was born on 17 February 1796. His brothers were ...
Article
J. K. Laughton
revised by Andrew Lambert
Belcher, Sir Edward (1799–1877), naval officer and hydrographer, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 27 February 1799, the second son of Andrew Belcher (1763–1841), a merchant in Nova Scotia who moved to England in 1811 and settled at Roehampton, Surrey, and his wife, ...
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Catherine Pease-Watkin
Bentham, Samuel (1757–1831), naval architect and inventor, was born in London on 11 January 1757, the youngest of the seven children of Jeremiah Bentham (1712–1792), an attorney, and his wife, Alicia Woodward Whitehorne (d. 1759), the eldest daughter of Thomas Grove, an ...
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Maker: Henry Edridge
Samuel Bentham (1757–1831) by Henry Edridge, c. 1795–1800 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
G. C. Boase
revised by Andrew Lambert
Biddlecombe, Sir George (1807–1878), naval officer and hydrographer, born at Portsea, Hampshire, on 5 November 1807, was the son of Thomas Biddlecombe (bap. 1782, d. 1844) of Sheerness Dockyard, who died on 12 September 1844, and his wife, Hannah Randell (...
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Billings, Joseph (1758–1806), explorer and hydrographer in Russia, was born in 1758 at Turnham Green, Middlesex, according to ship musters; parish church registers confirm the birth of Joseph, son of Thomas and Mary Billing, on 6 September 1758. Billings's signed Russian service record, however, gives 1761 as the year of his birth. Other sources indicate that ...
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W. Geraint Price
revised
Bishop, Richard Evelyn Donohue [Dick] (1925–1989), mechanical engineer and naval architect, was born on 1 January 1925 in Lewisham, London, the elder son (there were no daughters) of Norman Richard Bishop, chief accountant and director of Tar Residuals Ltd, and his wife, Dorothy Mary Wood...
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Brierly, Sir Oswald Walters (1817–1894), marine painter and naval engineer, was born at Chester on 19 May 1817, the son of Dr Thomas Brierly (d. in or before 1872), a physician and amateur artist. After schooling in Chester, he became a pupil at ...
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Maker: unknown engraver
Sir Oswald Walters Brierly (1817–1894) by unknown engraver, pubd 1887 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Elizabeth Baigent
Collins, Greenvile (d. 1694), naval officer and hydrographer, sailed between 1669 and 1671 with Sir John Narborough as master of the Sweepstakes on a voyage to the south seas. He was in sole charge of navigation on this voyage. In 1676 he was master of the ...
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Christopher Terrell
Columbine, Edward Henry (1763–1811), hydrographer and colonial governor, was born in Westminster on 2 July 1763, the son of Lieutenant Edward Columbine RN. He had a sister, Sarah, who married into the Dorrington family, later of Lypiatt Park, Gloucestershire. After attending King's School, Canterbury...
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Cust, Sir Herbert Edward Purey- (1857–1938), naval officer and hydrographer, was born on 26 February 1857, the second son of Arthur Perceval Purey-Cust (1828–1916), dean of York (1880–1916), and his wife, Lady Emma Bligh, younger daughter of the fifth earl of Darnley. He entered the ...
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Andrew S. Cook
Dalrymple, Alexander (1737–1808), hydrographer, was born on 24 July 1737 at Newhailes, near Edinburgh, eleventh of the fifteen children of Sir James Dalrymple, second baronet (1692–1751), of Hailes in the county of Haddington, and Christian Hamilton (c.1703–1770), youngest daughter of Thomas, ...
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Richard Compton-Hall
Davis, Sir Robert Henry (1870–1965), inventor of diving and breathing apparatus, was born in London on 6 June 1870, the eldest son of Robert Davis, a detective in the City of London police force. In 1882, aged eleven, Davis entered the firm of ...
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Des Barres, Joseph Frederick Wallet (1721–1824), hydrographer and colonial official, was born in November 1721, either in Basel, Switzerland, or in Paris, the eldest child of Joseph-Léonard Vallet des Barres, a Huguenot, and his wife, Anne-Catherine, née Cuvier. He was baptized Joseph-Frédéric Vallet...
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Dixon, Sir Robert Bland (1867–1939), engineer and naval officer, was born on 30 March 1867 at Darlington, the elder son of Robert Bland Dixon, architect and surveyor, and his wife, Mary Ann Whitecomb (née Parr). He was the elder brother of Walter Ernest Dixon...
