Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Arctic 1875-76 medal awarded to the pioneer arctic photographer William Grant for his services on the Pandora Expedition

Arctic Medal 1875-76 (W. J. A. Grant, Artt. & Secy. Pandora) extremely fine and rare £3000-3500

Ex Biddulph Collection 1951.

William J. A. Grant was born at Cullompton, Devon, on 1 May 1851. He attended Harrow and Oxford, where he had apparently made a “special study" of the art of photography. Evidently possessed of independent financial resources, he practiced his specialty for years afterward for little or no pay, serving on eight arctic expeditions during the period from 1876 through 1883. His first photographic venture to the arctic was on board the steam yacht, Pandora, with Sir Allen Young, during which he produced at least 40 photographs. This first photographic excursion to the far North for Grant produced a variety of images reflective of the settlements and people visited while in Greenland, as well as other documentary photographs meant to verify the locations visited while searching for records of the British Arctic Expedition commanded by Sir George Nares.

After his trip with Sir Allen Young, Grant participated on four voyages in the Dutch arctic schooner Willem Barents in the vicinity of the Barents Sea. His photographic work in these voyages was impressive, and for each trip he produced a high quality photographic album recording his work. Grant also participated in two other arctic excursions on British yachts, sailing with Benjamin Leigh Smith on board Eira in 1880 and again with Smith on board Kara in 1882, producing a photographic record in each case.

Grant was the most productive and successful arctic photographer in the era preceding Robert Peary. His photographic legacy is considerable, but little known, the majority of his work being done for the Dutch and therefore preserved in the Netherlands. He was a fellow of both the Royal Photographic Society and the Royal Geographic Society, and received the Arctic Medal 1875-76 for his service on Pandora. He died on 10 March 1935 at the age of 83.