Biographies

FALKNER, THOMAS 1707 - 1784
England

Jesuit priest and author, was born on 6 October 1707 in Manchester, the son of Thomas Falkner an apothecary. He studied medicine in London and mathematics and physics under Isaac Newton. In 1730 he...

FANNING, EDMUND 1769 - 1841
United States

American explorer and sealer, was born in Stonington, Connecticut, on 16 July 1769, son of Gilbert Fanning and his wife Hulda, née Palmer.

He was named after his uncle, the British General Edmund...

FARMER, GEORGE 1732 - 1779
Ireland

naval officer, was born at Youghal, Co Cork, in 1732, son of John Farmer from a Northamptonshire family. He went to sea in the merchant service at an early age and later after entering the Royal...

FAULKNER, HENRY MARTYN 1816 - 1859
England

colonial chaplain, was born at Hammersmith, London, the son of William Faulkner - 'the son of a clergyman', he later wrote, 'by whom I was educated'.

He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in...

FELTON, ARTHUR ERNEST 1854 - 1933
Falkland Islands

farmer and naturalist, was born on 17 December 1854 in Stanley, the tenth child of Henry FELTON and his wife Martha, née Staples.

Several of Henry Felton's sons took to farming, either in the...

FELTON, GEORGE JOHN (Jack) 1879 - 1943
Falkland Islands

was born in Stanley on 23 March 1879, son of JJ FELTON (one of the 14 children of Henry FELTON and Martha) and his wife Sara, née Turner. He was baptised in Holy Trinity Church (now Christ Church...

FELTON, HENRY 1798 - 1876
England

soldier and patriarch, was born in the Parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, London in 1798, the youngest son of William Felton, coach maker, and Sara.

The four Felton children were said to have...

FELTON, JOHN JAMES (JJ) 1841 - 1911
England

farmer, was born on 19 December 1841 in Westminster, London, third child of Henry FELTON and his wife Martha.

The family were among the PENSIONERS who arrived in 1849 on the merchant ship Victory....

FERGUSON, DAVID 1857-1936
Scotland

geologist and mineral prospector, was born 'Glasgow c1857' according to the records of the University of Glasgow which he attended as a mature student aged about forty. Nothing is known of his...

FILCHNER, WILHELM 1877 - 1957
Germany

German surveyor and geodesist (South Georgia), was born into a family of forest superintendents at Munich, Germany on 13 September 1877. In 1900, as a military cadet, he used a three-month leave...

FITZGERALD, MIGUEL LAWLER b 1926
Argentina

Argentine civil pilot, was born on 8 September 1926 in Buenos Aires. His father, Vouchier Crawford FitzGerald and mother Elizabeth Lawler of Dublin had emigrated from Ireland to Argentina, where...

FITZROY, ROBERT 1805 - 1865
England

naval hydrographer, was born on 5 July 1805 at Ampton Hall, near Euston in Suffolk, the second son of Lord Charles FitzRoy (the second son of the third Duke of Grafton) and Anne, daughter of the...

FLEURET, ARTHUR ISADORE (Ike) 1899 - 1987
Falkland Islands

civil servant, was born at Fitzroy, East Falkland on 5 May 1899, son of Gaston Nicholas Fleuret and his wife Mary, née Pitaluga. His grandfather, Augustus Nicholas Fleuret, was a gaucho from Paris...

FORAN, JAMES 1823 - 1900
Ireland

Roman Catholic priest, was born on 5 December 1823 at Whitefield, Tramore, Co Waterford, eighth of the eleven children (nine boys and two girls) of Michael Foran and Bridget, née Dooley. His father...

FORSTER, JOHANN REINHOLD 1729 - 98
Germany

Johann Reinhold Forster was born on 22 October 1729 at Dirschau, Polish Prussia {Tczew, Poland}, the only child of the marriage of Georg Reinhold Forster and the widow Eva Platt in 1727. In 1745-48...

Frampton, Sir George

see RANSOM, Frank

FRENCH, NEVILLE ARTHUR IRWIN 1920 - 1995
Kenya (also England)

governor, was born on 28 April 1920 in Kenya, son of Major Ernest French RE, and Alice French. He was educated in England at Selhurst School, Croydon. From school he joined the Royal Fleet...

FREYCINET, LOUIS-CLAUDE de 1779 - 1842
France

French naval officer, the second son of Louis de Saulces de Freycinet (1751-1827), had his first taste of exploration while serving in Nicolas Baudin's expedition to Australia (1800-1804).

On the...

FREZIER, AMÉDÉE-FRANÇOIS 1682 - 1773
France

French engineer and cartographer, was supposedly from a Scots family named Frazer, which had fled to France. He was born in Chambery in Savoy in the French Alps.

He trained as a military engineer...

FUCHS, Sir VIVIAN ERNEST (Bunny, Papa) 1908 - 1999
England

geologist, expedition leader and administrator, was born on 11 February 1908 at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, only child of an English mother, Violet Anne Watson and a German father Ernst Fuchs....

GARDINER, ALLEN FRANCIS 1794 - 1851
England

naval officer and missionary, was the fifth son of Samuel Gardiner of Coombe Lodge, Oxfordshire, and his wife Mary, née Boddam. He was born on 28 January 1794 in the parsonage house at Basildon,...

GARDINER, ALLEN WEARE P c 1830 - 1878
England

missionary, was the only son of Captain Allen Francis GARDINER, founder of the Patagonian Missionary Society and his wife Julia Susanna, née Reade.

After Capt Gardiner's death by starvation on...

GEORGE V 1865 - 1936
England

king and royal visitor, was born at Marlborough House, London on 3 June 1865, the second child of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and his wife Alexandra.

He was baptised George...

GIBBS, JAMES GORDON 1903 - 1978
New Zealand

New Zealand agriculturalist, was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 10 August 1903, the elder son of Dr Harry Gibbs and Annie, née Gardner. He had a BAgr and a MAgrSc from New Zealand colleges and...

GIL DE TABOADA Y LEMOS (sometimes spelled Lemus), FRANCISCO fl 1774
Spain

Spanish naval officer. In 1757, as an alférez de fragata, Gil had spent some time in Malta, serving in a Maltese ship curbing pirate activity in the Mediterranean. As a teniente de navío, Gil was...