Everything about John Macgillivray totally explained
John MacGillivray (
December 18,
1821 –
June 6,
1867) was born in
Aberdeen,
Scotland, the son of
ornithologist William MacGillivray.
MacGillivray took part in three of the Royal Navy's surveying voyages in the Pacific. In 1842 he sailed as naturalist on board
HMS Fly, despatched to survey the
Torres Strait,
New Guinea, and the east coast of
Australia, returning to England in 1846.
In the same year he was appointed as
naturalist on the voyages of
HMS Rattlesnake (Captain
Owen Stanley), collecting in
Australian waters at
Port Curtis,
Rockingham Bay,
Port Molle,
Cape York,
Gould Island,
Lizard Island and
Moreton Island in
Queensland,
Port Essington (
Northern Territory) and visiting
Sydney (
New South Wales) on several occasions. The expedition was in
Hobart,
Tasmania, in June 1847 and also surveyed in
Bass Strait, and on the southern coast of
New Guinea and the
Louisiade Archipelago. On this series of voyages his most notable achievement was to make records of the aboriginal languages of the peoples he encountered. His account of the voyages was published in London.
In 1852 he deserted his sick wife and his children in London, and sailed for Australia.
T.H. Huxley found his consumptive wife down to her last shilling, and raised £50 to send her and the children back to Australia where her parents could look after her. She died two weeks from Sydney (Desmond 1994 p217).
MacGilllivray's journey on
HMS Herald was also doomed to failure. The ship visited
Lord Howe Island, New South Wales,
Dirk Hartog Island and
Shark Bay,
Western Australia. On this expedition he was accompanied by Scots naturalist
William Grant Milne. MacGillivray left the voyage early in 1855, having been dismissed by the captain
Henry Mangles Denham. He had become a hopeless drunkard, and when he died, alone in a squalid hotel room, the records noted 'mother and father unknown' (Desmond 1994).
MacGillivray died in Sydney, New South Wales, on 6 June 1867. He is commemorated in the name of the
Fiji Petrel Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi.
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