George Francis Lyon was born in 1795 at Chichester. In 1808, he entered the Navy and was appointed lieutenant in HMS Berwick in 1814, later serving in HMS Albion at the Battle of Algiers and participating in an expedition to North Africa. Promoted commander in 1821, he was placed in command of HMS Hecla on the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition, 1821-1823 (leader William Edward Parry), sent by the Admiralty in company with HMS Fury to search for a passage along the west coast of the unexplored Foxe Basin in the Canadian Arctic. After two attempts to sail through Fury and Hecla Strait were hindered by the ice, the expedition was forced to return in 1823. Promoted captain on his return, Lyon published his account of the expedition in 1824 and his sketches were used to illustrate Parry's narrative of the expedition.
In 1824, Lyon led the British Naval Exploring Expedition, sent by the Admiralty to Repulse Bay, northwest Hudson Bay, with the objectives of crossing Melville Peninsula to the north coast of mainland America and of exploring that coast westward to Turnagain Point, Kent Peninsula. Setting out in HMS Griper in June 1824, the expedition landed on Coats Island, northern Hudson Bay and reported on the Eskimo whom they met there. In Roes Welcome Sound, they were twice nearly shipwrecked and were forced to turn home before reaching Repulse Bay.
After the expedition, Lyon worked briefly for a Mexican mining company but lost most of his possessions when the ship in which he was returning was wrecked in 1827. He worked for mining companies in South America until 1832 when failing eyesight forced him to set sail for Britain. He died at sea on 8 October 1832 during the return journey.
Published work The private journal of Captain G F Lyon, of HMS Hecla, during the recent voyage of discovery under Captain Parry John Murray, London (1824) SPRI Library Special Collection (41)91(08)[1821-1823 Parry] A brief narrative of an unsuccessful attempt to reach Repulse Bay through Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome, in HM Ship Griper, in the year 1824 by George Francis Lyon, John Murray London (1825) SPRI Library Special Collection (41)91(08)[1824 Lyon]
From the guide to the George Lyons collection, 1824, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
