John Clements Wickham

Captain John Clements Wickham
Portrait of John Clements Wickham
Police Magistrate, District of Moreton Bay, New South Wales
In office 1 January 1843[1] – 8 April 1853[1]
Appointed by	Sir George Gipps
Preceded by	Gilbert Elliot[2]
Succeeded by	None; position renamed Police Magistrate, Brisbane[1]
Government Resident, District of Moreton Bay, New South Wales
In office 8 April 1853[2] – 1858[2]
Appointed by	Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
Preceded by	None[2]
Succeeded by	Frederick Rawkins[2]
Personal details
Born	(1798-11-21)21 November 1798 Leith, Scotland
Died	6 January 1864(1864-01-06) (aged 65) Biarritz, France
Resting place	churchyard of St Jean de Luz[3]
Military service
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Years of service	1812 – 1841
Rank	Captain
Commands	HMS Beagle

John Clements Wickham (21 November 1798 – 6 January 1864) was a Scottish explorer, naval officer, magistrate and administrator. He was first lieutenant on HMS Beagle during its second survey mission, 1831–1836, under captain Robert FitzRoy. The young naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin was a supernumerary on the ship, and his journal was published as The Voyage of the Beagle. After that expedition, Wickham was promoted to Commander and made captain of the Beagle on its third voyage, from 1837 and conducted various maritime expeditions and hydrographic surveys along the Australian coastline.^[4]

In 1843, after his retirement from the Royal Navy, Wickham was made Police Magistrate and, later, Government Resident of the Moreton Bay District, in the Colony of New South Wales (NSW). Wickham retired in 1859, when the Moreton Bay District was separated from NSW, forming basis of the Colony of Queensland. When the Queensland and NSW governments disagreed over which was responsible for his pension, Wickham moved to France, where he died.^[4]