The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-01-15 00:00:00

Trrn STOUMhXDGE OBSERVER.

FUNERAL OF LIEUT. IRVING, R.N.

On the 7th inst., the reinterment of the remains of
Lieutenant,. John Irving, R.N., of her Majesty's ship
Terror, took place with naval honours in the Dean
Cemetery, Edinburgh. The remains, it will be re-
membered, were recovered by the party sent out
recently under Lieutenant Schwatka to search for
relics of Sir John Franklin and his band of explorers.
The funeral procession, which started from No. 55,
Great King-street, was witnessed by a large number
of spectators. A firing party of 86 Marines from the
Lard Warden led the way with arms reversed, fol-
lowed by the band of the list Highlanders, who played
the " Maltese Fttneral March,"Beethoven's "Funeral
March," and the "Dead March" in Saul; and the
pipers of the 71st Regiment, who played "The
Flowers of the Forest." Then came a gun-carriage
from Leith Fort, drawn by six horses on which was
placed the coffin covered by the Union Jack. Behind
the coffin walked the mourners, sixty seamen from
her MajestY's ship Lord Warden, detachments of
twenty men each from the Royal Artillery, the 21st
Hussars, and the 71st Regiment, Staff and regimental
officers, and the Lord Provost in his carriage. On
arrival at the cemetery the coffin was taken off the
gun-carriage and carried shoulder-high to the grave
by six seamen. After prayer by the Rev. P. Beaton,
Chaplain to the Forces, three volleys were fired over
.the grave. The remains were enclosed in an oak
coffin, and the inscription on the plats was as
follows :

"John Irving, Lieutenant P.N. Born 1815; died
1848-1849."

The chief mourners were Captain Lindsay, R.N.,
Her Majesty's ship Lord Warden, and Major-General
Irving, R.A., ; and the pall-bearers were Lieu-
tenants Johnson, Field, Monteith, Reid, and Ede, of
the Lord Warden. Among others present were
Major-General Hope, Commanding the Forces in
Scotland, Admiral Dunlop, Admiral Fellows, and
Colonel Preston.

The Times of Wednesday gives the following obituary
aotice of Lieut. Irving:—

"Lieutenant John Irving, R.N. was the fourth
son of the late Mr. John Irving, of Edinburgh, Writer
to the Signet, a schoolmate and intimate friend of Sir
Walter Scott. John Irving (the son) was born in 1815.
He entered the Navy, but after a short time left it, and
proceeded to Australia as a sheep farmer, taking with
him a younger brother. After remaining there for
several years, he took advantage of the circumstance
of a man-of-war being at Sydney and short of officers
to offer himself as acting lieutenant—an appointment
which, on his arrival at Portsmouth after a lengthened
cruise in the Pacific, was immediately confirmed.
After a short further service in Her Majesty's ship
Excellent, he applied for an appointment under Sir
John Franklin, who was then preparing for his
memorable expedition, and he obtained the position
of a lieutenant in Captain Crozier's ship Terror.
The sad history of the fate of the expedition is well
knows; the abandonment of the ships and the loss of
every man on board, after probably untold hardships
from starvation and cold. The members of the American
Franklin Search Expedition discovered the remains
of Lieutenant Irving by means of a medal, which had
escaped the notice even of the rapacious natives while
rifling the grave, and were at the great trouble of
bringing the remains as far as New York, whence
they sent the news to Lieutenant Irving's family.
Through the Foreign Office,4ltiajor-General Irving
obtained possession of the remains, and, instructed
by the Foreign Secretary, the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty were kindly prepared to bring them
home; but the owners of the Anchor Line of
steamers, when communicated with bY the Admi-
rality, generously replied that they could not think
of making any charge, and that they would consider
it an honour if these cherished bones were put on board
one of their vessels. The inscription on the medal
found in the grave has been already made public.
The medal had been gained in a mathematical compe-
tition at the Naval College, Portsmouth, in 1830, when
Irving was barely 15. John Irving, as his friends
remember him, possessed all the best qualities of a
British sailor."