George Francis Lyon

George Francis Lyon (23 January 1796 – 8 October 1832) was an English naval officer and explorer of Africa and the Arctic. While not having a particularly distinguished career, he is remembered for the entertaining journals he kept and for the pencil drawings he completed in the Arctic; this information was useful to later expeditions. Early life He was born in Chichester, the elder son of Lieutenant Colonel George Lyon of the 11th Light Dragoons and Louisa Alexandrina Hart. She was in turn the second daughter of Sir William Neville Hart and Elizabeth Aspinwall. He was educated at Burney's Academy in Gosport, Hampshire. Naval career After joining the Royal Navy he was entered on the books of at Spithead in 1808 before going to sea aboard . Niger River