John Irving

John Irving in 1843

**John Irving** was a lieutenant on *HMS Terror* during the Franklin expedition.

## Early Life

John Irving Jr. was born on February 8th, 1815 on Princes Street, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was baptised on April 5th of the same year.He was the fourth son of John Irving Sr. and Agnes Clerk Hay. During his time in Edinburgh, he remained at No. 106 Princes Street and often addressed letters from there.

His mother was the daughter of Colonel Lewis Hay, who was killed during the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, known as the Helder Expedition, in 1799. The editor of Irving's memoirs, Benjamin Bell, describes Agnes Hay as "a very excellent, godly woman" and considers her impact on her son as "doubtless". She died on July 10th, 1823, when her son was eight years old.

John Irving, Sr. was a lawyer and a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet, and was a close childhood friend of eminent Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott. Later in life, John Irving, Sr. was close with his nephew, Sir George Clerk, one of the Secretaries of the Treasury and a former Lord of the Admiralty. Irving appears to have been close to his father and kept a continual correspondence with him.

Interestingly, one of Irving's cousins was Alexander Hamilton.

Of his six surviving siblings, Irving was particularly close to his older brother, Lewis Hay Irving, affectionately known in his letters as "Lewie". Several of Irving's surviving letters are addressed to Catherine "Kate" Irving, John's sister-in-law through Lewis.

Irving attended the New Academy of Edinburgh. His classmates, as late as the 1880s, remembered him as "a nice fellow, fond of play, with a good deal of quiet humour, courageous, but very slow to quarrel or take offense". He did not finish out the standard seven-year term at the New Academy, and instead entered the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, beginning his career in the Royal Navy.

## Naval Career and Australia

Irving joined the Navy on June 25th, 1828, and passed his examination on June 24th, 1834. While he was at the Naval College in Portsmouth, he competed in a mathematics competition held during the Midsummer term of 1830. Despite suffering from an attack of scarlet fever, Irving finished in second place and was awarded a silver mathematics medal, which was later recovered from his grave on King William Island. Among the ships Irving later served on were the *HMS Cordelia, HMS Belvidera, HMS Edinburgh, HMS Favourite*, *HMS Volage*, and *HMS Excellent*.

During his career on the *Belvidera* he became close friends with William Elphinstone Malcolm and George Kingston. Malcolm, in particular, would keep a close and steady correspondence with Irving for years after signing off on the *Belvidera* in 1833.

He gained several more close friends while on the *Edinburgh,* most notably a group of boys very invested in their Christian faith. With Irving included, this group was jokingly referred to among their shipmates as "the Holy Ghost boys", which Irving described as "horrid to relate". While on the *Edinburgh*, Irving also received a permanent injury on his upper lip from a case of frostbite at Mount Etna, causing a slight projection that remained for the rest of his life.

Irving's opinion of his career in the Navy seemed to have fluctuated often depending on his circumstances. An early letter to William Malcolm, written in 1834, describes Irving's Naval prospects as "so bad that I can hardly do worse than remain in it", and far more directly, "I have told my father that I shall be glad to leave the Navy".

### Australia and a Return to the Navy

In 1837, Irving left the Navy in an attempt to live and work as a sheep and cattle farmer in Australia. For several years prior to his departure, Irving had mentioned a desire to settle in Australia and had spoken of the idea with his father. By February of 1838, he had settled in the Monaro Region of New South Wales with his younger brother, David. The brothers' father had entrusted Irving with the care of his brother and had offered them a sum of around £1000 (roughly £111,031 by 2019 values) to help with their settlement.

Irving's Australia accommodations were not ideal. In a letter to William Malcolm, he described his surroundings and huts as "the most Robinson-Crusoe style imaginable" and explained that all of his conveniences must be hand-made. Irving also rescued a young man from drowning in the nearby river Wallondilly and saw to after his recovery.

Prior to May of 1838, Irving suffered a severe and prolonged case of dysentery, prompting his medical attendants to worry that it might be fatal. However, he made a full recovery and by May sent a letter onto Malcolm, describing his hopes for becoming a successful farmer. By this point, he owned 500 sheep and 20 cows, and jokingly hoped to be "like the patriarchs of old, master of flocks and herds".

Yet loss of profits, a grueling landscape, and "great hardship and deprivation" drove Irving to return to the Navy by 1843, partially under his father's wishes. He then joined as acting-lieutenant on the *HMS Favourite* in Sydney, leaving his livestock and property to his newly-married brother. After a short trip through the South Sea Islands, Irving then returned to Scotland and moved back in with his father at his new home on North Charlotte Street in Edinburgh. Shortly after his return, he joined the *HMS Volage* as a second lieutenant. Finally, Irving joined the *HMS Excellent*, a gunnery ship, in Portsmouth.

After becoming a lieutenant, and despite his earlier chill toward the Navy, Irving expressed his wishes to be promoted to Captain or Commander at a future date. By the time that he joined the Franklin Expedition, he expected to begin the path to promotion upon his return.

## Franklin Expedition

In March 1845, Irving signed up for the Franklin Expedition as a lieutenant aboard *HMS Terror*. He corresponded with his sister-in-law Kate Irving during the first part of the journey, describing life on the ship in detail including steam engine trials, entertainment, and the state of the cargo. Throughout this correspondence, he included several of his own drawings of the ship and surrounding landscapes.

By the time the Expedition reached Orkney, Irving was very pleased with the state of things, and was optimistic that the journey would go well. He called Sir John Franklin "a fine old fellow" and believed that under Franklin's leadership, they would "persevere this time also".

His last letter to Kate Irving was written around July 10th, 1845 and was sent from Whalefish Island, Greenland. This letter was intended to be a farewell, as Irving believed he would not get the chance to send a letter to her for several years. His last letter describes the preparations for entering the mouth of the Northwest Passage, and the joking assurance that the Expedition was well-furnished with three years' worth of prepared food, so "you need not think we have been eating our shoes". He describes the expected route, and optimistically adds:

> *"The former expeditions were stopped by a barrier of ice so thick and solid that the summer, which is only ten weeks long, passed away without dissolving it. However, I trust that we may have a warmer summer, either this or the next, or find some channel which they overlooked. We have the advantage of all their experience, and will save much valuable time in not looking uselessly for a passage where land has been laid down in the charts, which we have with us."*
>
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Irving finishes this letter with a sample of *Tripe de Roche*, a lichen that was eaten during the Expedition, as well as a drawing of *Erebus* and *Terror.*

According to the Victory Point note, Irving was still alive after the ships were abandoned. The note mentioned that he was the one who found the note in the cairn.

## Grave found and reburial

In 1879, American Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka while exploring on King William Island for searching for relics and bones of the Franklin Expedition found a grave at the site of Terror Camp. The grave was that of Lt. John Irving, who had his silver mathematics medal buried with him. Pieces of canvas, blue wool, a handkerchief, and metal items were also found near the grave, which appeared to have been ransacked by animals. Moved by the sight, Schwatka applied to the Admiralty to have Irving's remains brought back to Scotland, which the Admiralty acquiesced to and covered the full cost of transport.

Irving's bones were returned to Edinburgh and were buried at Dean Cemetery on January 7th, 1881. A funeral was held in the house of his sister, Mary Scott-Moncrieff, and was attended by many remaining members of his family. After the service, his coffin, covered in a Union Jack, was placed on a gun-carriage and taken along a parade route to the cemetery. The *Edinburgh Daily Review* described the funeral and parade as well-attended and crowded, and the burial itself as sober and solemn.

## Gallery

Fragments of Irving's jacketA fork that belonged to IrvingIrving's silver mathematics medal from the Royal Naval College; later recovered at his gravesiteIrving's signature from the Terror's muster bookCameo-style silhouette of IrvingIrving's Arctic medalThe receipt for Terror's chronometers which was signed for by Irving