Auction Catalogue

4 & 5 December 2008

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 1055

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5 December 2008

Hammer Price:
£12,000

The important pair to the noted Arctic and Antarctic explorer Admiral Edward Joseph Bird, Royal Navy, who first went to the Arctic Seas in the Hecla under Captain Lyon in his expedition of 1821-23, and in two subsequent expeditions in 1824-25 and 1827 under Hoppner and Parry, accompanied Sir James Clark Ross’s Antarctic Expedition of 1839-43, and was Captain of Investigator during the Franklin Search Expedition of 1848-49; he features prominently in Stephen Pearce’s historical painting ‘The Arctic Council’

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Algiers (E. J. Bird, Midshipman); Arctic Medal 1818-55, unnamed as issued, nearly very fine (2) £10000-12000

Edward Joseph Bird was born in 1799, son of the Rev. Godfrey Bird, who was for forty years Rector of Little Waltham, in Essex. Bird entered the Navy on 9 September 1812, as First Clas Volunteer on board the Boyne 98, in which ship, and as Midshipman in the Ville de Paris 110, each bearing the flag of Sir Harry Neale, he was employed at the blockade of Brest. From August 1814 until May 1819, he served in the Queen and Albion 74s, both commanded by Captain John Coode, under whom he fought in the Albion at the battle of Algiers, 27 August 1817.

In February 1821 he was appointed Mate of the Hecla, Captain George Lyon, fitting for a voyage to the Polar regions, from which he returned to England in November 1823. Appointed, with Captain Henry Parkyns Hoppner, in January 1824, to the Fury, he again sailed for the Arctic seas in company with Hecla. The following winter was spent at Port Bowen, in Prince Regent’s Inlet, where the two vessels remained from September 1824 until July 1825, Shortly afterwards, however, Fury was wrecked and her crew were brought home by Captain Parry in the Hecla, arriving in October 1825.

Towards the close of 1826, after a short spell in Ganges, he wasonce more appointed for Arctic service to the Hecla, under the immediate command of Captain Parry. Proceeding to the northern shore of Spitzbergen, Bird accompanied Parry with the sledge-boats in an attempt to reach the North Pole across the ice. During an absence of sixty-five days from their vessel, the intrepid explorers, in spite of every hardship, penetrated a little beyond 82° 45’, the most northern latitude so far attained. Upon his return to England, Bird was rewarded with the rank of Lieutenant, and was subsequently employed in various ships on the Home station and in the Mediterranean, latterly as First Lieutenant, until April 1839 when he was appointed in a similar capacity, to the Erebus, under Captain James Clark Ross. In the following September he sailed in Erebus, in company with the Terror, on a voyage of discovery to the Antarctic seas, where three persevering efforts to penetrate the icy limits of the Southern Pole resulted in the discovery of a large continent, fringed with a barrier of ice from 150 to 200 feet in height, which received the name of Victoria Land, and of an active volcano, known since then as Mount Erebus.


The expedition returned to England in September 1843, after an absence of four years, during which many perils had been survived and many interesting and important additions to geographic and scientific knowledge achieved. During his absence he had been advanced to a commander’s commission, and, on his arrival home, he was at once rewarded with promotion to Captain.

Bird’s last appointment, in February 1848, was to the command of the Investigator. In this vessel he was sent, with Sir James Clark Ross in the Enterprise, in quest of the missing expedition under Sir John Franklin. He returned to England with the expedition in November 1849, after having wintered at Port Leopold, Barrow Strait. Bird retired as a Vice-Admiral in 1869, was promoted to Admiral in 1875 and died in 1881.

Bird was one of the ten distinguished subjects who featured in Stephen Pearce’s historical painting of 1851, ‘The Arctic Council discussing the plan of search for Sir John Franklin’. The other sitters included Sir George Back, Sir William Edward Parry, Sir James Clark Ross, and Sir Francis Beaufort. The medals are accompanied by an original copy of W. R. O’Byrne’s ‘Descriptive Key’ to this famous painting, published in 1851 in order to promote sales of the engraved print of the same. This has an ink inscription to ‘John Jackson Bird, from W. S. Woodburn Esqre. with the Engraving. 7th Decr. 1853’. Following O’Byrne’s brief record of British Arctic exploration to that time, are biographies of all the officers who feature in the painting. See Lots 303 and 425 for related family medals.