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Authorised form of nameEvans; Sir; Frederick John Owen (1815 - 1885)
Dates1815 - 1885
Date of birth09 or 25 March 1815
Place of deathHis residence, 21 Dawson Place, Pembridge Square, London
Date of death20 December 1885
Research fieldHydrography
Geomagnetism
ActivityCareer:
Entered Royal Navy as second class volunteer (1828); surveyed the Coral Sea, the Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Straits (1841-1846); Superintendent of the Compass Department, Royal Navy, working with Archibald Smith (FRS 1856) (1855); Captain (1872); Hydrographer to the Royal Navy (1874); served on the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society with responsibility for investigating tidal data (1884)
Honours:
CB 1873; KCB 1881
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election05/06/1862
RSActivityRoyal Society roles:
VP 1884-1885
RelationshipsSon of John Evans, Master, Royal Navy; married (1846) Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Captain Charles Hall RN
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc 1886 vol 40 pp i-vii signed by G H R
References:
Charles H Cotter, 'The Royal Society and the Deviation of the Compass' in NR 1976-7 vol 31 pp 297-309
Notes:
DNB, DSB and Boase give birth date as 9 March 1815; index to BR gives 25 March 1815
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/102409724
CodeNA2166
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
MM/21/96Letter from Sir Frederick John Owen Evans to Joseph Dalton Hooker, President, Royal Society10 December 1875
MS/769/25Letter from Frederick John Owen Evans, Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, to [Walter] White28 December 1883
PT/72/4/2Plate, diagrams showing action of soft iron rods on compass by unknown artist[1865]
RR/7/65Referee's report by Frederick John Owen Evans, on a paper 'Contributions to terrestrial magnetism - No. XII. The magnetic survey of the British Islands, reduced to the epoch 1842·5' by Edward Sabine11 July 1870
RR/6/116Referee's report by George Henry Richards, on a paper 'On the amount and changes of the polar magnetism at certain positions in Her Majesty's iron-built and armour-plated ship 'Northumberland'' by Frederick John Evans22 May 1868
RR/4/84Referee's report by Archibald Smith, on a paper 'Reduction and discussion of the deviations of the compass observed on board of all the iron-built ships, and a selection of the wood-built steam-ships in Her Majesty's Navy, and the iron steam-ship 'Great Eastern'' by Frederick John Evans16 October 1860
RR/6/115Referee's report by Archibald Smith, on a paper 'On the amount and changes of the polar magnetism at certain positions in Her Majesty's iron-built and armour-plated ship 'Northumberland'' by Frederick John Evans22 May 1868
RR/7/178Referee's report by George Biddell Airy, on a paper 'On the present amount of westerly magnetic declination [variation of the compass] on the coast of Great Britain, and its annual changes' by Frederick John Owen Evans2 July 1872
RR/8/210Referee's report by Frederick John Owen Evans, on a paper 'A magnetic survey of the fortieth parallel in North America between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Salt Lake Utah' by Thomas Edward Thorpe18 June 1879
EC/1862/06Evans, Sir Frederick John Owen: certificate of election to the Royal Society
RR/4/82Letter from George Biddell Airy, on a paper 'Reduction and discussion of the deviations of the compass observed on board of all the iron-built ships, and a selection of the wood-built steam-ships in Her Majesty's Navy, and the iron steam-ship 'Great Eastern'' by Frederick John Evans27 June 1860
RR/4/86Letter from John Washington, on a paper 'Reduction and discussion of the deviations of the compass observed on board of all the iron-built ships, and a selection of the wood-built steam-ships in Her Majesty's Navy, and the iron steam-ship 'Great Eastern'' by Frederick John Evans7 May 1860
RR/4/83Referee's report by George Biddell Airy, on a paper 'Reduction and discussion of the deviations of the compass observed on board of all the iron-built ships, and a selection of the wood-built steam-ships in Her Majesty's Navy, and the iron steam-ship 'Great Eastern'' by Frederick John Evans25 April 1860
PT/72/4/3Plate, position of compasses in profiles of ships by unknown artist[1865]
PT/72/4/1Tables, from 'On the magnetic character of the armour-plated ships of the Royal Navy, and on the effect on the compass of particular arrangements of iron in a ship' by Frederick John Owen Evans and Archibald Smith[1865]
MC/6/155Letter from T H Farrer, Office of Committee of Privy Council of Trade, Marine Department, Whitehall, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly25 June 1861
MC/6Volume 6 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1859-1863
MC/7/267Letter from Fredk Jn O [Frederick John Owen] Evans, Hydrographic Office, to General [Edward] Sabine, [President of the Royal Society]23 October 1865
MC/7/260Letter from Fredk Jn O [Frederick John Owen] Evans, Chief Naval Assistant in charge of the magnetic department, Admiralty, Hydrographic Department, to the Hydrographer of the AdmiraltySeptember 1865
MC/7Volume 7 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1864-1866
RR/4/245Referee's report by Edward Sabine, on a paper 'On the effect produced on the deviations of the compass by the length and arrangement of the compass-needles; and on a new mode of correcting the quadrantal deviation' by Archibald Smith and Frederick John Owen Evans12 June 1861
MC/10/211Letter from Fredr Jno [Frederick John] Evans, hydrographer, Admiralty, to Professor G G [George Gabriel Stokes], Secretary of the Royal Society29 January 1875
MC/10/352Letter from Fredr Jn O [Frederick John Owen] Evans, Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, to Professor T H [Thomas Henry] Huxley, [Secretary of the Royal Society], Burlington House14 February 1876
MC/10/469Letter from Fredr Jn O [Frederick John Owen] Evans, Hydrographer, Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, Whitehall, to the Secretary of the Royal Society7 December 1876
MC/10Volume 10 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal SocietyJuly 1873-1876
PT/63/9Paper, 'On the effect produced on the deviations of the compass by the length and arrangement of the compass needles and on a new mode of correcting the quadrantal deviation' by Archibald Smith and Frederick John [Owen] Evans[1861]
MC/11/38Letter from [the Meteorological Committee], Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, to [Joseph Dalton Hooker], President of the Royal Society and to the Council31 March 1877
MC/11Volume 11 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1877-1879
MC/12Volume 12 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1880-1883
MC/13/39Letter from Fredr Jno [Frederick John Owen] Evans to Professor [Michael] Foster, [Secretary of the Royal Society]1 April 1884
MS/427/355Copy letter from [Thomas Henry] Huxley, President of the Royal Society; to J. W. Underhill, Hydrogr[aphic] Department, Admiralty3 April 1884
MC/13Volume 13 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1884
RR/5/70Referee's report by Thomas Romney Robinson, on a paper 'On the magnetic character of the armour-plated ships of the royal navy, and on the effect on the compass of particular arrangements of iron in a ship' by Frederick John Owen Evans and Archibald Smith22 April 1865
PP/3/19Paper, 'Remarks on the soundings and temperatures obtained in the Faeroe [Faroe-Shetland] Channel during the summer of 1882' by T H Tizard1883
PP/4/18/1Manuscript, 'Extracts from a report on the volcanic eruption in Sunda Strait by Commander the Honourable F C P Vereker, H M S "Magpie", dated Singapore, October 22, 1883' by F C P [Foley Charles Prendergast] Vereker1883
PP/11/21Paper, 'On tidal currents in the ocean' by John Young Buchanan1884-1888
PP/11/21/1Manuscript, 'On tidal currents in the ocean' by John Young Buchanan1884-1888
PP/4/18Paper, 'Extracts from a report on the volcanic eruption in Sunda Strait by Commander the Honourable F C P Vereker, H M S "Magpie", dated Singapore, October 22, 1883' by F C P [Foley Charles Prendergast] Vereker1883
PT/61/5Paper, 'Reduction and discussion of the deviations of the compass observed on board of all the iron built ships, and a selection of the wood built steam ships in H M [Her Majesty's] Navy; and the iron steam ship Great Eastern: being a report to the hydrographer of the Admiralty' by Frederick J [John Owen] Evans19 April 1860
PT/72/4Illustrations and tables, from 'On the magnetic character of the armour-plated ships of the Royal Navy, and on the effect on the compass of particular arrangements of iron in a ship' by Frederick John Owen Evans and Archibald Smith[1865]
RR/4/85Letter from Archibald Smith, on a paper 'Reduction and discussion of the deviations of the compass observed on board of all the iron-built ships, and a selection of the wood-built steam-ships in Her Majesty's Navy, and the iron steam-ship 'Great Eastern'' by Frederick John Evans29 June 1860
RR/4/244Referee's report by George Biddell Airy, on a paper 'On the effect produced on the deviations of the compass by the length and arrangement of the compass-needles; and on a new mode of correcting the quadrantal deviation' by Archibald Smith and Frederick John Owen Evans17 May 1861
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