Editing Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (section)

==Career in the Admiralty==
Barrow returned to Britain in 1804 and was appointed [[Second Secretary to the Admiralty]] by [[Henry_Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville|Viscount Melville]], a post which he held for forty years{{sfn|Anonymous|1911}}&nbsp;– apart from a short period in 1806–1807 when there was a [[British Whig Party|Whig]] government in power.<ref>Fergus Fleming. Barrow's Boys (Kindle Edition). Kindle Location 242–252</ref> [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey]] took office as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] in 1830, and Barrow was especially requested to remain in his post, starting the principle that senior civil servants stay in office on change of government and serve in a non-partisan manner. Indeed, it was during his occupancy of the post that it was renamed [[Permanent Secretary]].<ref name="UTC" /> Barrow enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all the eleven chief lords who successively presided at the Admiralty board during that period, and more especially of [[William IV of the United Kingdom|King William IV]] while lord high admiral, who honoured him with tokens of his personal regard.{{sfn|Anonymous|1911}}

In his position at the Admiralty, Barrow was a great promoter of [[Arctic]] voyages of discovery, including those of [[John Ross (Arctic explorer)|John Ross]], [[William Edward Parry]], [[James Clark Ross]] and [[John Franklin]]. [[Barrow Strait]], [[Cape Barrow (Nunavut)|Cape Barrow]], and [[Cape John Barrow]] in the [[Northern Canada|Canadian Arctic]], as well as [[Point Barrow]] and the former [[Utqiagvik, Alaska|city of Barrow]] in [[Alaska]] are named after him. He is reputed to have been the initial proposer of [[Saint Helena]] as the new place of exile for [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] following the [[Battle of Waterloo]] in 1815.<ref>{{Cite book|title=An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, in the Years 1797 and 1798: Including Cursory Observations on the Geology and Geography of ... Such Objects as Occurred in the Animal, Vege|last=Barrow|first=John|publisher=Forgotten Books|year=2017|isbn=978-0259441045}}</ref><ref name="UTC" /> He is also remembered for infamously declaring the newly invented electrical telegraph as being "wholly unnecessary" and greatly delaying its proposed adoption by the admiralty.<ref>{{Cite web | url = https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201708/physicshistory.cfm  | access-date = 3 August 2020 | title = This Month in Physics History – August 5, 1816: Sir Francis Ronalds' telegraph design rejected| publisher = [[American Physical Society]]}}</ref>

Barrow was a fellow of the [[Royal Society]] and received the degree of [[Doctor of Laws|LL.D]] from the [[University of Edinburgh]] in 1821. A [[baronetcy]] was conferred on him by Sir [[Robert Peel]] in 1835.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=19241 |date=17 February 1835 |page=284}}</ref> He was also a member of the [[Raleigh Club]], a forerunner of the [[Royal Geographical Society]].{{sfn|Anonymous|1911}} Barrow was subsequently one of the seven founding members of the Royal Geographical Society on 16 July 1830.<ref name="Markham23">{{cite book |last=Markham |first=Sir Clements Robert |date=1881 |title=The Fifty Years' Work of the Royal Geographical Society |publisher=J. Murray |page=23}}</ref>