Owen Stanley

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Captain Owen Stanley FRS (13 June 1811 – 13 March 1850) was a British Royal Navy officer and surveyor. He was born in Alderley, Cheshire, the son of Edward Stanley, who was rector of Alderley and later Bishop of Norwich. His brother was Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and his sister Mary Stanley.

Stanley entered the Royal Naval College at about fifteen and studied there in the mid-1820s, though the exact dates are unclear. In 1826 he served briefly as a volunteer on HMS Druid in the English Channel, then became a midshipman. From 1826 to 1827 he served on HMS Ganges, and from 1827 to 1830 on HMS Forte. In 1830 he joined Phillip Parker King on HMS Adventure to survey the Straits of Magellan at the tip of South America.

Back in the Mediterranean, Stanley’s work took him into the broader British role in the region after the Greek War of Independence. He was mate on HMS Belvidera in 1831 and then served with Captain John Franklin on HMS Rainbow in the Mediterranean the same year. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1831 and worked in Grecian waters until 1836 on several ships, including HMS Kent, HMS Procris, HMS Malabar, and HMS Mastiff. During 1834–1836 he spent eighty-four days surveying the Gulf of Corinth in a small boat, even hauling his boat over the Isthmus to rejoin Mastiff.

In 1836 he went to the Arctic as scientific officer on HMS Terror under George Back. In 1838 he took command of HMS Britomart and led a voyage to Australia and New Zealand, returning in 1843. Notable moments during his sea service include his promotion to commander on 26 March 1839 and his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1842.

From 1843 to 1846 he was on shore duty, and in December 1846 he sailed from Portsmouth in command of HMS Rattlesnake, with naturalists Thomas Huxley, John MacGillivray and artist Oswald Walters Brierly aboard, and Charles Bampfield Yule on HMS Bramble. In November 1847 he reached Port Curtis on the Australian coast and described the harbour as a very good anchorage. In 1848 he moved north to survey New Guinea and, in June, offered protection and assistance to Edmund Kennedy’s Cape York Peninsula expedition. He also surveyed the Louisiade Archipelago.

Stanley fell ill in 1849 and died in March 1850 after returning to Sydney. His work was continued in published form: John MacGillivray produced a two-volume account of the Rattlesnake voyage (1852), and Thomas Huxley’s diary from the voyage appeared in 1935. He is buried in St Thomas Rest Park in Cammeray. The Owen Stanley Range in New Guinea is named after him. In memory of his brother, Dean Stanley donated the font in ChristChurch Cathedral in New Zealand.