ABSTRACT
Joseph Ritchie, the son of a doctor, followed in his father's footsteps and became a hospital surgeon at York in 1811; a few years later, he moved to the Lock Hospital in London. George Francis Lyon joined the Navy in 1808 and sailed on a number of ships before he went to Africa in 1818; he was at Cadiz, Toulon and the siege of Gaeta in 1815, and took part in the battle of Algiers in 1816 on board the Albion. In Africa, Lyon and Ritchie proved how unwelcome Englishmen really were. But back in England, Lyon turned the trip into one of the most entertaining of all travel narratives. He was promoted to commander in 1821 and made several voyages to the Arctic, one under Captain William Edward Parry. He wrote travel narratives of all his voyages before he died on board ship on his way home from Buenos Ayres on 8 October 1832.
