James Mangles (Royal Navy officer)

James Mangles FRS, FRGS (1786 – 18 November 1867) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of captain. In the post war period he gained a reputation as a traveller and an amateur botanist.

Life
Mangles entered the navy in March 1800, on board the frigate HMS Maidstone, with Captain Ross Donnelly, whom in 1801 he followed to HMS Narcissus. After active service on the coast of France, at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope, and at the British invasions of the Río de la Plata, he was, on 24 September 1806, promoted to be lieutenant of HMS Penelope, in which, in February 1809, he was present at the reduction of Martinique.

In 1811 Mangles was appointed to HMS Boyne, and in 1812 to HMS Ville de Paris, flagship in the English Channel of Sir Harry Burrard Neale. In 1814 he was first lieutenant of HMS Duncan, flagship of Sir John Poo Beresford in his voyage to Rio de Janeiro. He was sent home in acting command of the sloop, HMS Racoon and was confirmed in the rank of captain on 13 June 1815. This was his last service afloat.

In 1816 Mangles left England, with his old messmate in the Narcissus, Captain Charles Leonard Irby, on what proved to be a lengthy tour in Europe, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor. They travelled with William John Bankes and Thomas Legh. Mangles was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825, and in 1830 was one of the first fellows and members of council of the Royal Geographical Society.

In 1831 Mangles visited the Swan River Colony in Australia. Lady Stirling, wife of Sir James Stirling who was governor there, was a cousin. As a consequence Mangles went into business, with his brother Robert, dealing in botanical specimens and seeds. Anigozanthos manglesii is named after James Mangles.

Mangles died at Fairfield, Exeter, on 18 November 1867, aged 81.

Works
The letters of Irby and Mangles were privately printed in 1823, and were published as a volume of Murray's "Home and Colonial Library" in 1844. Mangles was also the author of:


 * The Floral Calendar, 1839, a short work on window and town gardening;
 * Synopsis of a Complete Dictionary ... of the Illustrated Geographically and Hydrography of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, 1848;
 * Papers and Despatches relating to the Arctic Searching Expeditions of 1850-1-2, 1852; and
 * The Thames Estuary, a Guide to the Navigation of the Thames Mouth, 1853.