Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/526

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McClintock
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McClintock

university of Cambridge for the encouragement of study and research in astronomy and physical optics. This foundation has proved eminently successful. In 1911 five important government positions in astronomy were filled by former Isaac Newton students.

McClean joined the Royal Astronomical Society in 1877, and served on the council from 1891 until his death. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Glasgow in 1894. He was elected F.R.S. m 1895. He died at Brussels, from pneumonia, on 8 Nov. 1904, and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery. He bequeathed his collection of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books and a large part of his art treasures to the FitzWilliam Museum at Cambridge, and made large money bequests to that university, to the university of Birmingham, to the Royal Institution, and to the Royal Astronomical Society for furthering astronomical and physical science. In 1865 he married Ellen, daughter of John Greg of Escowbeck, Lancaster, and by her had two daughters and three sons. The youngest, Frank Kennedy McClean, is an observing astronomer and an aviator.

[Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. lxxviii.; Roy. Astron. See. Monthly Notices, Feb. 1905, vol. lxv.]

H. P. H.

McCLINTOCK, Sir FRANCIS LEOPOLD (1819–1907), admiral, born at Dundalk on 8 July 1819, was the eldest son of Henry McClintock, formerly of the 3rd dragoon guards, by his wife Elizabeth Melesina, daughter of the Ven. George Fleury, D.D., archdeacon of Waterford. He entered the navy in 1831 and passed his examination in Oct. 1838; but promotion at that date was slow and uncertain, and McClintock remained a mate for nearly seven years. He was made lieutenant on 29 July 1845, when serving in the Gorgon on the South American station, and a few days later was moved into the Frolic, sloop, on board which he served for two years in the Pacific. On 7 Feb. 1848 he was appointed to the Enterprise, Captain Sir James Clark Ross [q. v.], for a voyage to the Arctic; and in Feb. 1850 he was chosen to be first lieutenant of the Assistance [see Ommanney, Sir Erasmus, Suppl. II], proceeding on a similar voyage of discovery. In these expeditions he established his reputation as an Arctic traveller, more especially by making an unprecedented sledge journey of 760 miles in 80 days in the winter and spring of 1851, when the Assistance was frozen up at Griffith Island. On his return home be received his promotion to commander, dated 11 Oct. 1851. In Feb. 1852 a larger Arctic expedition of five ships was fitted out and placed under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher [q. v.]. Two of the ships had auxiliary steam power, and McClintock was given the command of one of these, the Intrepid, which was officially described as tender to the Resolute, Capt. Kellett, under whose immediate orders he was. The Intrepid wintered on the south side of Melville Island, whence many sledge expeditions were sent out. McClintock himself made a journey of 1210 geographical miles in 105 days, during which he examined and charted the west coast of Prince Patrick Island and Ireland's Eye. The comparative perfection to which Arctic sledge travelling attained was in great measure due to improvements introduced by McClintock. In the summer of 1854 Belcher decided to abandon the Intrepid and three other ships, and the party returned home in the North Star and two relief ships. On 22 Oct. 1854, a day after McClintock received his promotion to captain, Dr. Rae arrived with the first certain intelligence of the fate of Franklin's expedition [see Franklin, Sir John]. The Admiralty was satisfied of the truth of the news and took no action to confirm it, but Lady Franklin determined on a search expedition. For this purpose she bought the Fox yacht and had her fitted out, principally at her own cost, giving the command to McClintock who, like the other officers of the expedition, offered his services gratuitously. McClintock published in 1859 an account of this service, entitled 'The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas : a Narrative of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions,' a work which has gone through many editions. The expedition returned to England in 1859, bringing with it the written memorandum of Franklin's death, of the abandonment of the ships, and of the fate of the whole party. In recognition of his success McClintock was allowed by the Admiralty to count the period of his command of the Fox as sea-time, and in 1860 he was knighted.

From Feb. 1861 to Dec. 1862 McClintock commanded the Doris, frigate, in the Mediterranean, and in Nov. 1863 commissioned the Aurora for service with the Channel squadron. In her he cruised in the North Sea during the Danish war of 1864, and on 9 May of that year, by his presence at Heligoland, prevented the