Frederick William Beechey (1796-1856), Rear-Admiral and geographer

Sitter in 4 portraits
Beechey entered the Navy in July 1806 and served on a number of ships before, in 1818 he went on the Arctic expedition of which he later published an account, Voyage of Discovery Towards the North Pole. He embarked on many other surveying missions, including the north coast of Africa, South America and the coast of Ireland. From 1850 until his death he was Superintendent of the Marine Department of the Board of Trade; he was consulted on all Arctic issues and contributed papers to the Royal Society of which he was a fellow. Beechey was the author of two reports of observations on the tides in the Irish Sea and English Channel, which made a critical contribution to the modern understanding of tides.