Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant J. H. C. East, Royal Navy

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, no clasp (Lieut.J. H. C. East, R.N. H.M.S. Myrmidon.); Khedive’s Star 1884-6, unnamed as issued, good very fine (2) £400-£500

James Henry Cunningham East was born in Kingstown, Co. Dublin in March 1858 and entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet in Britannia in January 1871, aged 12 years. Advanced to Sub. Lieutenant in March 1877, he served aboard H.M.S. Warrior between May and August 1878, which famous ship may now be seen at Portsmouth, fully restored.

East next joined the survey ship Alert, an appointment that lasted until September 1882. During that period the Alert, commanded by Captain G. S. Nares, the famous Arctic explorer, carried out an extensive survey in South American waters and in the South Pacific, details of which appear in British Oceanographic Vessels:

‘The Alert sailed from Plymouth in September 1878 via Madeira, St. Vincent, Montevideo and the Falkland Islands, reaching the Strait of Magellan on New Year’s Day 1879. Throughout 1879 and the first half of 1880 the Alert surveyed the coast of Patagonia, Nares being recalled and replaced by Captain J. L. P. Maclear, his second-in-command on the Challenger, in spring 1879. Leaving South America in June 1880, the Alert sailed via Tahiti and Fiji to Sydney, arriving in January 1881. After six months surveying off the eastern and northern coasts of Australia the ship sailed to Singapore for a refit where she was ordered to survey Amirante and neighbouring islands in the south-western Indian Ocean. These surveys were conducted between March and May 1882 and the Alert then returned to England via South Africa, St. Helena and the Azores, arriving at Plymouth in September.’

A full account of the expedition by the ship’s surgeon, R. W. Coppinger, was published in London in 1885, under the title Cruise of the Alert: Four Years in Patagonia, Polynesian and Mascarine Waters, 1878-82.

Passing his examinations for 2nd Class Assistant Surveyor in September 1884, while serving in the Myrmidon, another survey vessel, East witnessed active service off the Sudan in the same ship, surveying in the Red Sea during the Egyptian campaign, especially in 1884, off Suakin, Port Berenice, Hanish Island and Zeila.

It was noticed variously that ‘Eyes weak from survey in Red Sea’, ‘Eyesight will not bear a long continued strain of work’, and on 12 May 1885, he was invalided with ‘retinal paralysis’. Following various surveys and re-surveys [of his eyesight] until 28 November 1885, he was sent to Belleisle. He was in Thalia from November 1887 to March 1888, whither the Khedive’s Star was sent.

East returned to Myrmidon as Senior Lieutenant from 1 April 1888 to 31 January 1889, whence he transferred to Rambler when the crew from one transferred to the other. From Rambler, he was ‘discharged dead’ on 24 January 1890, having died at Albany, Western Australia, on that date aged 31 years, the reason being given as ‘climatic fever’. He is probably buried in Albany.

Sold with copied record of service.