Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Antarctic Polar Exploration group of three awarded to Dr Alan William Reece, Meteorologist and Geologist, who was killed in a plane crash on Cornwallis Island in the Canadian Arctic

Polar Medal 1904, E.II.R., 1st issue, silver, 2 clasps, Antarctic 1946, Antarctic 1950-52 (Alan W. Reece) mounted as worn, in Royal Mint case of issue; Norway, Maudheim Medal, 1 clasp, Maudheim 1949-52, Haakon VII, silver, reverse inscribed, ‘Alan William Reece 1952’, in (damaged) case of issue; Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition Medallion 1949-52, 56mm., bronze, reverse inscribed, ‘Allan (sic) Reece’, in Tostrup card box of issue, generally extremely fine (3) £4000-5000

Alan William Reece was born and educated in London. His academic training at Imperial College, London, commenced in 1940 but was several times interrupted by other activities. During 1942-44 he was a Naval Meteorological Officer based on the Orkney Islands, and later became temporarily attached to the Admiralty Forecast Section during ‘Operation Neptune’ - the Normandy Invasion. In December 1944 he was posted to the Falkland Islands where he was in charge of a meteorological station on Deception Island in the South Shetlands. Later he moved to Trinity Peninsula to carry out meteorological and geological observations with a topographic survey party.

In 1947 Reece returned to London and completed his undergraduate studies in geology during the next two years. After having received his B.Sc. from the Royal School of Mines, he was appointed geologist to the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, spending the years 1950-52 in the Antarctic. There he took part in geological mapping of an area of some 10,000 square miles. During 1952 Reece worked at the Scott Polar Research Institute and Sedgewick Museum, Cambridge, working on the data gathered from Antarctic expedition. In 1953 he went to Africa and joined the Uganda Geological Survey, 1953-56. In 1956 Reece acted as consulting geologist for a Danish mining company in East Greenland. In the following year he returned to Imperial College, London, doing research work on his observations in Uganda, made possible by gaining the Leverhulme Research Grant. As a result in 1958 he was awarded the D.I.C. and Ph.D. by the College. In 1959 he joined the firm of J. C. Sproule and Associates in Canada. While working from Resolute on Ellesmere Island on 28 May 1960, his light plane landed to help another plane which was down on the sea ice. On the flight back to Resolute, Reece and his pilot were killed in the whiteout conditions which had developed, crashing on Cornwallis Island.

With copied letter to J. C. Sproule & Associates from a colleague, giving details of the fatal accident; two obituaries and a photocopied photograph of his grave. Also with a copy of the book The White Desert, by John Giaever, being the official account of the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1949-52, and with a box of matches with specially printed label from the Norwegian-British-Swedish Expedition 1949-1952.

The Maudheim Medal was instituted by King Haakon VII of Norway on 14 November 1951 in memory of the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1949-1952, and was awarded to the participants of the expedition. The medal was the same as the King's Medal of Civil Merit in Silver but with the addition of a clasp ‘Maudheim 1949-52’. It was awarded to 6 Norwegian, 6 British (including Reece) and 5 Swedish citizens. The medal was named after the base camp of the expedition, which was on a floating ice shelf, off the coast of Queen Maud Land - the Norwegian Antarctic claim.