Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An Arctic Exploration pair awarded to Doctor Thomas Colan, Principal Medical Officer for the Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, and later Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets

Baltic 1854-55 (Dr. Thomas Coghlan, H.M.S. Royal George); Arctic Medal 1876 (Dr. T. Colan, Fleet Surgn. R.N. H.M.S. Alert) light contact marks and wear, therefore nearly very fine (2) £2500-3000

A total of 156 Arctic 1876 medals awarded, uncluding 62 to the Alert.

Thomas Coghlan (later Colan) was born in Cork on 7 November 1830. He entered the Royal Navy on 5 December 1853, as an Assistant Surgeon on board the Royal George, in which ship he served in the Baltic during the campaigns of 1854-55. During the summer of 1854 the Royal George suffered much from cholera. In January 1856 he joined the Pylades and again visited the Baltic with the Advanced Squadron in the ice of the Gulf of Finland (Medal). After witnessing the grand naval review held at Spithead at the conclusion of the war, he sailed for the North America and West India station where he continued to serve in the Boscawen 70, and in the Scorpion surveying vessel, until April 1857. After serving in the Hastings 60, he joined the Beagle, in which vessel he served during the Second China War, being present at the capture of the Peiho Forts, and in the Tientsin River during the operations which resulted in the fall of Pekin (Medal with clasp).

Coghlan was promoted to Surgeon on 30 January 1863, and shortly afterwards changed his name to Colan. He was awarded the Gilbert Blane Gold Medal for 1872 for his Medical Journal on the West Coast of Africa. In 1873 he served in Rattlesnake during the Ashantee War, for which service he was specially promoted to Staff Surgeon in March 1874 (Medal). Appointed Principal Medical Officer for the Arctic expedition of 1875-76 under Captain George S. Nares, Colan served on board the Alert, and for his services was once again specially promoted, to Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets (Arctic Medal). From October 1877 he served for three years as Deputy Inspector of Hospitals at Port Royal in Jamaica, during which time yellow fever broke out twice at Port Royal. In January 1883 he was promoted to Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets, and retired in April of that year. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and author of A Memoir on Parasitic Vegetable Fungi and Diseases induced by them, besides his paper on the West Coast of Africa. He died on 18 August 1885, aged 54.