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Auction: 18001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 422

The mounted group of five miniature dress medals attributed to Admiral J. F. L. P. Maclear, Royal Navy, who commanded the Challenger expedition of 1872-76

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol; Baltic 1854-55; China 1857-60, 1 clasp, Taku Forts 1860; Abysinnia 1867-68; Turkish Crimea 1855, mounted as worn in this order, good very fine (5)

John Fiot Lee Pearse Maclear was born at Cape Town in June 1838, the son of Sir T. Maclear, Astronomer Royal of the Cape of Good Hope. Entering the Royal Navy as a Cadet aboard H.M.S. Castor in 1851, he was promoted Midshipman and served aboard Algiers for the operations in the Crimea (Medal and clasp) and the Baltic (Medal). A Lieutenant aboard Sphinx for the China operations China (Medal and clasp), he transferred as Flag Lieutenant of the Octavia in 1868 for the Abyssinia expedition, in the process earning his promotion to Commander (Medal).

It would be in command of the Challenger, at the request of Sir George Nares that Maclear would lead the truly ground-breaking expedition of 1872-76. During her journey of nearly 70,000 nautical miles, the vessel would lay the foundations of modern oceanography and discover nearly 5,000 marine species.

Maclear himself would end the expedition with mountains, islands, plants and even rats taking his name. Succeeding Nares aboard Alert in 1877, they would complete important survey work in the Magellan Straights and he was promoted Admiral upon retirement in 1903. Having married a daughter of Sir John Herschel and been made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Meteorological Society, he died at Niagara in 1907.


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Sold for
£750