Balleny, John (b. c. 1770, d. in or after 1842), merchant navy officer and Antarctic discoverer, was born c.1770 but nothing is known about his early life and education. He may have been a Londoner, brought up in the Newcastle coal trade. From 1798, when he was living in the parish of ...
Article
A. G. E. Jones
revised by Elizabeth Baigent
Article
A. G. E. Jones
revised by Elizabeth Baigent
Biscoe, John (bap. 1794, d. 1843), merchant navy officer and explorer, was baptized in Enfield on 28 June 1794, the third son and youngest child of Thomas Biscoe of Waltham Abbey and his wife, Ann Tibbs. Nothing is known of his early years, but on leaving school he became a clerk. On 11 March 1812 he volunteered for the ...
Article
Smith, William (1790–1847), merchant navy officer and Antarctic explorer, was born on 11 October 1790 in Seaton Sluice, Northumberland, the elder child of William Smith, joiner, of Seaton Sluice, and his wife, Mary Sharpe, of Earsdon, Northumberland. Nothing is known about his early years and education but he was probably apprenticed aged fourteen to the east coast coal trade. In 1811 he became owner and master of the ...
Article
Snow, William Parker (1817–1895), mariner and explorer, son of a naval officer, was born at Poole, Dorset, on 27 November 1817. His father died in 1826, leaving the family ill provided for; his mother took the family to Jersey and Normandy, leaving William...
Image
Maker: Lavender
Joseph Wiggins (1832–1905) by Lavender © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
O. J. R. Howarth
revised by Elizabeth Baigent
Wiggins, Joseph (1833–1905), Arctic explorer and merchant navy officer, was born on 3 August 1833 at Norwich, where he was baptized at St Peter’s Mancroft on 27 November 1833, the son of Joseph Wiggins (d. 1843) and his wife, Anne Petty (...
Image
Maker: Stephen Pearce
Sir Allen William Young (1827–1915) by Stephen Pearce, 1876 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
R. N. Rudmose Brown
revised by Elizabeth Baigent
Young, Sir Allen William (1827–1915), merchant navy officer and polar explorer, was born at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn, London, on 12 December 1827, the second son and fourth of ten children of Henry Young (1792/3–1854), a solicitor, later of Riverdale, Twickenham...
