1. Leopold McClintock confirmed explorer John Rae's controversial report gathered from Inuit sources on the fate of Franklin's lost expedition, the ill-fated Royal Navy undertaking commanded by Sir John Franklin in 1845 attempting to be the first to traverse the Northwest Passage.
Leopold McClintock stirred controversy with his claim that Franklin, before his death, had essentially discovered the Northwest Passage, while in reality he had not.
Leopold McClintock was the second oldest son, although the eldest died somewhere in the Caribbean, aged over 40.
The family was well connected; Leopold McClintock's uncle, John Leopold McClintock, was a Member of Parliament for County Louth and owned Drumcar House.
Hitherto, until 1847, Leopold McClintock's service was almost wholly on the American coasts.
Leopold McClintock joined a series of searches for Sir John Franklin between 1848 and 1859.
Leopold McClintock mastered travel through the manhauling of sledges, which remained the standard practice when it came to overland travel in icy territory in the Royal Navy, until the death of Robert Falcon Scott in his bid to reach the South Pole in 1912.
In 1848, Leopold McClintock accompanied James Clark Ross on his survey of Somerset Island.
Leopold McClintock entered Peel Sound, found it blocked by ice, backed up, and entered Prince Regent Inlet in the hope of passing Bellot Strait.
Leopold McClintock was glad to extricate himself from this narrow passage and found winter quarters near its entrance.
Leopold McClintock returned to England in September 1859, and was hailed as the discoverer of the lost expedition's fate.
Leopold McClintock's findings were of special importance for the subsequent romantification of John Franklin's figure in British culture, since the establishment of his date of death as having occurred before the ships' abandonment and the crew's failed trek south, firmly acquitted the veteran sailor from any suspicion of cannibalism.
In 1860, Leopold McClintock took command of the paddle steamer Bulldog as part of an expedition to determine the feasibility of carrying a telegraph line from Europe to America via the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland.
In 1865 Leopold McClintock was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
From 1872 to 1877, Leopold McClintock was admiral-superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard.
Leopold McClintock retired from the Royal Navy in 1884 as a rear admiral.
Leopold McClintock died on 17 November 1907 and was buried at Kensington Cemetery.
Leopold McClintock unsuccessfully contested a seat in parliament for the borough of Drogheda, but while there he made the acquaintance of Annette Delap, and married her in 1870.
Leopold McClintock was the daughter of Robert Foster Delap and Hon.