334 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



On the establishment of the Birmingham University, Mr. Osier 

 insisted that his subscription of 5,000 to the endowment fund should 

 be printed on the list as given anonymously. Other institutions and 

 individuals have to thank him for generous acts towards them. 



He was a man of great mental power, very clear-sighted in all that 

 interested him, and he fearlessly held opinions which, he believed to be 

 true. At the same time, his sensitive temperament prevented his 

 taking the prominent position in scientific and public life which he 

 would otherwise certainly have occupied. 



Mr. Osier died at the age of 95 on April the 26th, 1903. 



W. J. E. 



SIR ERASMUS OMMANNEY. 18141904. 



ERASMUS OMMANNEY was born on May 22, 1814, the seventh son 

 of the late Sir Francis Molyneux Ommanney. He entered the Navy 

 in August 1826, on board H.M.S. "Albion," in which he took part in 

 the naval action of Navarino October 20, 1827. 



In 1835 he paid his first visit to the Arctic regions in H.M.S. 

 " Cove," sent under the command of Captain J. Clark Ross in 

 December to Baffins Bay, to rescue some whalers beset in the ice. 

 Lieut. Ommanney received special commendation from the Admiralty 

 for his behaviour in this dangerous service. In 1840 he became a 

 Commander having served in the interval in the Mediterranean, and 

 was placed in command of the " Vesuvius," one of the early type of 

 steam vessels in the navy, in which he served for three years in the 

 Mediterranean. 



Promoted to Captain on November 9, 1846, he was at first employed 

 in Ireland on relief measures, and then was appointed to H.M.S. 

 " Assistance," one of the vessels sent under the chief command of 

 Captain Horatio Austin in 1850, to search for Sir John Franklin. 



In command of this vessel he did much good work. He found the 

 first trace of Franklin's Expedition, and travelled great distances by 

 sledge in fruitless further researches, in the course of which he mapped 

 much coast line and obtained during two years many valuable 

 magnetic observations, some of them in the immediate vicinity of the 

 Magnetic Pole. 



