Blue plaque unveiled on the former home in London of Arctic explorer John Rae.

The English Heritage blue plaque, at 4 Lower Addison Gardens, Holland Park, London, is outside where the explorer lived for 24 years, until his death in 1893.

English Heritage blue plaque for Arctic explorer John Rae. Pic English Heritage

The plaque was unveiled by bushcraft and survival expert Ray Mears.

John Rae was largely an unsung hero of Arctic exploration during his lifetime, and only relatively recently has his contribution to modern survivalist techniques been fully appreciated.

His expeditions in the Canadian Arctic saw him cover a remarkable 13,000 miles by boat and on foot and survey more than 1,700 miles of new coastline, filling in some of the last gaps on the world map.

As the twentieth-century explorer Vilhjalmur Steffanson noted, Rae far outdid his contemporaries “in miles, speed and comfort” and was, in exploration terms, “as new as Darwin”. Rae was notable for having befriended the Inuit and used their survival techniques; they called him “Aglooka” meaning “he who takes long strides”.

Rae also identified the only north-west passage around America that is navigable without icebreakers, thereby signposting the end to a centuries-long quest.

At the time, however, his having ‘gone native’ was viewed with suspicion, and he was unfairly traduced as the bearer of bad news about the grim fate of Sir John Franklin’s expedition.

Orkney links

Rae was born in Orkney in 1813 and studied medicine at Edinburgh before being appointed surgeon aboard the Hudson Bay Company ship Prince of Wales.

From 1834 he served as surgeon at Moose Factory, the Company’s post on James Bay, where he treated the local population as well as Company men. Having learned the rudiments of surveying, Rae was chosen to lead an expedition to survey of the northern coastline of North America in 1846-67.

More than 600 miles of Arctic shoreline were mapped; the expedition was also significant for its unprecedented success in living off the land through an Arctic winter, which Rae later described in his Narrative of an expedition to the shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847 (1850).

In search of the Northwest passage

The writer R.M. Ballantyne encountered Rae on this journey, and recalled him as “very muscular and active, full of animal spirits” and as possessing “a fine intellectual countenance”. Arctic exploration was one of the biggest challenges of the age, and one of the most dangerous: it is to Rae’s credit that he lost just one man in his entire career.

By 1848 concern was growing as to the fate of Sir John Franklin and his expedition, who had set off to find the Northwest Passage three years earlier. In 1854 Rae, who had joined two earlier search parties, encountered a party of Inuit who, through interpreters, told him of a group of Europeans who had starved to death, and produced artefacts that showed beyond reasonable doubt they were describing the Franklin expedition.

Aware that others were looking for the expedition in completely the wrong place, Rae hurried back to London and made a full report to the Admiralty, which included the Inuit’s harrowing accounts of evidence of cannibalism among the starving men. Much to Rae’s dismay, this report was made public; it was met with hostile incredulity, not least from Franklin’s widow, Lady Jane Franklin, who memorably described Rae as “hairy and disagreeable”.

Even Charles Dickens waded in with criticism, and Rae was accused of returning only for the £10,000 reward on offer and derided for accepting the word of Inuit “savages”.

He almost certainly knew nothing of the reward, which he shared with his men, and thereupon retired from exploration in 1856.

Recent forensic work on the Franklin expedition appears to have vindicated Rae and his Inuit informers.

From 1857 to 1859 Rae lived in Ontario and married Catherine Thompson in 1860.

Retirement

They afterwards sailed to England and lived mostly in London thereafter, though they continued to visit both Orkney and Canada. In retirement, Rae lectured extensively and was the author of some 30 articles relating to Arctic exploration, survival, flora, fauna and anthropology.

Elected to the Royal Geographical Society in 1880, Rae gave papers to numerous learned institutions and served on the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s research committee on ‘permanently frozen soil’, or permafrost.

He died of an aneurism at his London home in 1893 and was buried in Orkney. The navigable passage he identified through the Canadian Arctic is now named the Rae Strait; a plaque marks the approximate site of its discovery.

John Rae is remembered in St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney

Rae also has a plaque in Hamilton, Ontario, and fundraising is underway for the rescue and restoration of his Orkney ancestral home, the Hall of Clestrain, which is grade A listed (in the Scottish statutory list) but presently in a state of severe dereliction.

Number 4 Lower Addison Gardens, originally known as 2 Addison Gardens South, is the only surviving London address with a strong and proven association with John Rae.

The three-storey terraced house dates from very shortly before the Raes moved in there in 1869; the road was only half complete when they did so.

For an Arctic explorer from the Orkneys, London may not seem the most obvious place to retire, but he relished London and its connections to intellectual life.

After his treks in the Arctic, Holland Park was just a short stroll away for Rae from the learned institutions at which he lectured.

Rae was also a good shot and belonged to the London Scottish Volunteer regiment. Howard Spencer, English Heritage historian added: “When Roald Amundsen sailed the north-west route around America in 1903-06 he readily acknowledged his debt to Rae as a surveyor and a survivalist. Rae paved the way for the explorers who walked in his footsteps and learned from the strong connection he forged with the land and its indigenous people.”

Hoad Monument in Ulverston is shrouded in scaffolding as work starts on a £1m restoration project.

The pepperpot, as it is know locally due to it’s shape, towers above the town in South Cumbria and is an icon for miles around.

Hoad Monument, Ulverston

Built in 1850 from limestone it is in the shape of the former Eddystone lighthouse designed by Smeaton.

Built as a tribute to Sir John Barrow, who was born in Ulverston in 1764, it commemorates his naval achievements.

Sir John Barrow was an academic and naval administrator. He taught mathematics in Greenwich before travelling on a Government expedition to China in 1792.

He became fluent in many languages including Mandarin Chinese.

He became Second Secretary to the Admiralty from 1804 – 1845 and promoted British exploration of West Africa and the North Polar Region. Expeditions included those by Sir John Ross, Sir James Clark Ross and Sir John Franklin.

He was the civil servant who exiled Napoleon to St Helena and also wrote the official report on the Mutiny on the Bounty published in 1831.

He was an important figure in British Naval History and has lent his name to both Barrow Point northern Alaska and Barrow Strait, Canada.

Leaky monument

The monument was closed in 2003 because of severe ingress of water.

The Heritage Lottery fund has awarded Ulverston Town Council  £891,000 towards the restoration  The total project cost is £1,120,000.

Chairman of the town council’s Monument Restoration Committee Cllr Colin Hodgson said; “I am absolutely delighted that our bid has been successful and look forward to carrying out the work and  re-opening of the monument.

Hoad monument as seen in 2006

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has supported the project development over the last three years, including Jayne Kendall Regeneration Manager for SLDC who prepared the bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Friends of the Sir John Barrow Monument who have worked so hard and the people of Ulverston, South Lakeland and indeed around the world for their generosity in contributing time and funds.

I would also like to thank South Lakeland District Council, Cumbria County Council, Townlands Trust and Ulverston Market town initiative for their financial support.

I would like to emphasize that we still need to carry on raising funds as we are committed to the Heritage Lottery Fund to raise an additional £50,000 over the next two years.

This is over and above the sum of £44,000 raised so far by the Friends of the Monument and others.

Donations can be sent to Ulverston Town Council, Town Hall, Queen Street, Ulverston, LA12 7ES”

It is anticipated that the monument will re-open early in 2010.