McClure was born in Wexford in the south-east of Ireland. His father was Captain Robert McClure from County Londonderry in Ulster, who was serving with the 89th Foot. McClure's mother and father had met and married while his father was stationed in Wexford in 1807; but, his father had died by the time of McClure's birth. He was a first cousin of Jane Wilde, the mother of Oscar Wilde, and spent his childhood under the care of his godfather, John Le Mesurier, governor of Alderney, by whom he was educated for the army. It is said that this branch of the McClures, who settled in County Londonderry in the 1650s, during the Plantation of Ulster, were actually MacLeods whose names had been altered.
He entered the Royal Navy in 1824, and twelve years later gained his first experience of Arctic exploration as mate of HMS Terror on an expedition commanded by Captain George Back. On his return, he obtained his commission as a lieutenant and from 1838 to 1839 served on the Canadian lakes. Subsequently, he was attached to the North American and West Indian naval stations, where he remained until 1846.
Two years later, in 1848, he joined a search expedition in their attempt to recover Franklin's lost expedition, an ill-fated expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage led by Sir John Franklin that was missing since 1845. McClure served under James Clark Ross as first HMS Enterprise's first lieutenant.

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