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Auction: 26003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 177

A good group of nine awarded to Second Radio Officer J. E. Gawn, New Zealand Merchant Navy, a member of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Pacific Star; Italy Star; War & New Zealand Service Medal 1939-45; Polar Medal 1904, E.II.R., silver issue, 1 clasp, Antarctic 1957-58 (John Edward Gawn); Explorers Club of New York Medal (J. E. Gawn); Royal Geographical Society, Fuchs Medal, Frank Kovaks by Spink, 64mm (Eimer 2099; BHM 4473; Poulsom 88, 92), good very fine (Lot)

Exhibited:
200 Years of Polar Exploration, Spink, November 2019.

37 Fuchs Medals for the Expedition issued in bronze.

John Edward Gawn was born in 1917 at Lyall Bay, Wellington, New Zealand, and educated at the Christian Brothers School, Dunedin, the Marist Brothers' Tasman Street School, Wellington and finally Wellington Technical College. Having operated as an amateur radio transmitter, with the Second World War he then went to sea with the Merchant Navy, and then spent two and a half years as a radio operator aboard the hospital ship Maunganui on voyages to the Middle East and in the Pacific. He was still aboard this vessel when she took the New Zealand Victory Contingent to Britain in 1946. From 1947 to 1952 he was a radio technician with the New Zealand Broadcasting Service at Titahi Bay, Wellington and Papa, Hawke's Bay and then returned to sea-going service. In the four years prior to his selection for the Antarctic, he had been with the Matua in the Pacific, and with the Wairuna, Monowai and Cinema. As a Merchant Navy officer, Gawn was then selected for the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition New Zealand party operating under Sir Edmund Hillary. Gawn served as the Second Radio Officer for the expedition at Scott Base. His award of the Polar Medal with clasp Antarctic 1957-58 in the London Gazette for 13 May 1958, one of 29 awards with this clasp, though there were a number more for the various expeditions then ongoing at this time.

He is recalled by Fuchs & Hillary in The Crossing of Antarctica on several occasions, including acting as instructor for the Scott Base party in the art of morse code, which he was described as 'immaculate'. He was also out on the ice with the tractor parties as a driver and then safely guided the Trans-Polar Flight in for a safe landing; he didn't want to miss the sight of them landing and once the strip was obversed, he downed his equipment to see the completion of the long flight. He went on to return to the Antarctic in 1964-65 as a member of the over-wintering party of the New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, during which he served as a radio officer at Scott Base. Whilst there, he was given the Honorary rank of Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy by the American contingent on the base due to his fine work and as an expression of the respect he was held - the original Certificate and the 'Oaths' undertaken is included in the Lot. Gawn died in 1988.

In recognition of his work, Mount Gawn - a prominent 2,190m peak located in the King Range of Victoria Land was named in his honour by the northern party of the 1963-64 New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition; sold together with aforementioned United States Certificate, besides old copied articles related to the recipient and his service.


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Estimate
£6,000 to £8,000

Starting price
£5800