50 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



SIR ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG. 1818-1899. 



Sir ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG, K.C.B., was of Irish parentage, his 

 father being Mr. A. Armstrong, of Craham, co. Fermanagh. He was 

 born 1818, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied medicine 

 at the University of Edinburgh. In 1842 he entered the Medical 

 Department of the Navy, and in the course of his career saw a great 

 deal of service in various parts of the world, becoming prominently- 

 identified with the survey of the " North-west Passage. " The expedi- 

 tion to search for Sir John Franklin from Behring Straits eastwards, 

 was fitted out in 1849, and Armstrong was appointed Surgeon and- 

 Naturalist to the "Investigator," under the command of Captain 

 (afterwards Sir Robert) M'Clure. Four successive Arctic winters were 

 passed by this expedition, before officers and men were finally trans- 

 ferred to the " North Star, " and returned to England in the autumn 

 of '54, while the "Investigator" was finally abandoned, a medical 

 survey of the crew, ordered by M'Clure and conducted by Surgeons 

 Armstrong and Domville, having proved the urgency of the step. 



During the hardships of this eventful expedition, the first and last 

 which succeeded in making the North-west Passage, Armstrong's efforts 

 were happily directed towards preserving the ship's crew from scurvy, 

 'mainly by the liberal administration of lime-juice, and he was success- 

 ful in keeping the scourge at bay until the spring of 1852. He was 

 frequently mentioned in the despatches connected with this expedition, 

 and at the time of his death was one of the very few surviving officers 

 of the party who circumnavigated the continent of America. 



The Russian war having broken out the year before the return of 

 the expedition, Armstrong was ordered to service with the Baltic 

 fleet. He was present at the bombardment of Sveaborg, and in two 

 night attacks with a flotilla of rocket-boats, for which he was after- 

 wards gazetted. 



Later in his career he rose to the highest offices in the naval medical 

 service. He was Deputy Inspector-General of the Mediterranean 

 Fleet and the Naval Hospitals of Malta, Haslar, and Chatham, and 

 was subsequently made Inspector-General for special services. In 1869 

 he was appointed Director-General of the Medical Department of the 

 Navy, from which post he retired in 1880. 



Armstrong published in 1857 his popular work, 'A Personal Narra- 

 tive of the Discovery of the North-west Passage,' and he was also the 

 author of a valuable book, ' Observations on Naval Hygiene, particu- 



