1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Inglefield, Sir Edward Augustus

21871991911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 14 — Inglefield, Sir Edward Augustus

INGLEFIELD, SIR EDWARD AUGUSTUS (1820–1894), British admiral and explorer, was born at Cheltenham, on the 27th of March 1820, and educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. His father was Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood Inglefield (1783–1848), and his grandfather Captain John Nicholson Inglefield (1748–1828), who served with Lord Hood against the French. The boy went to sea when fourteen, took part in the naval operations on the Syrian Coast in 1840, and in 1845 was promoted to the rank of commander for gallant conduct at Obligado. In 1852 he commanded Lady Franklin’s yacht “Isabel” on her cruise to Smith Sound, and his narrative of the expedition was published under the title of A Summer Search for Sir John Franklin (1853). He received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society on his return and was given command of the “Phoenix,” in which he made three trips to the Arctic, bringing home part of the Belcher Arctic expedition in 1854. In that year he was again sent out on the last attempt made by the Admirally to find Sir John Franklin.

In the Crimean War Captain Inglefield took part in the siege of Sevastopol. He was knighted in 1877, and nominated a Knight Commander of the Bath ten years later. He was promoted admiral in 1879. Besides being an excellent marine artist, he was the inventor of the hydraulic steering gear and the Inglefield anchor. He died on the 5th of September 1894. His son, Captain Edward Fitzmaurice Inglefield (b. 1861), became secretary of Lloyds in 1906. Sir Edward Inglefield’s brother, Rear-Admiral V. O. Inglefield, was the father of Rear-Admiral Frederick Samuel Inglefield (b. 1854), director of naval intelligence in 1902–1904, and of two other sons distinguished as soldiers.