Beschreibung:

The Ron Penhall Collection The Arctic Discoveries group of three awarded to Sir Alexander Armstrong, K.C.B., Director-General of the Medical Department of the Royal Navy, latterly Honorary Physician to Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, who was ‘Surgeon, Naturalist and Historian’ of the Investigator under McClure in the Franklin Search Expedition of 1850-53, a voyage that led to the discovery of the North-West Passage: Armstrong later published his own account of this Arctic epic and was credited with proving beyond dispute that lime juice could effectively deter scurvy Arctic Discoveries 1818-55 (Alexander Armstrong, M.D., H.M.S. Investigator), contemporary engraved naming; Baltic 1854-55 (Alexander Armstrong, M.D., H.M.S. Invesigator), contemporary engraved naming; Sir Gilbert Blane’s Gold Medal (Alexander Armstrong, M.D., “Investigator”, 1853), fitted with claw and ring suspension, the former partially obscuring the recipient’s surname, the first with traces of repair to suspension device, edge bruising, otherwise generally very fine and better (3) £3500-4000 Footnote In 1843 he was selected to take charge of the medical and scientific department of an exploring expedition to Xanthus, in Lycia, composed of 100 officers and men drafted from the flagship Queen, under the command of Captain Frederick Warden of the Medea. For the successful results of his exertions on this occasion, Dr. Armstrong received the thanks of the Trustees of the British Museum, conveyed through the Admiralty. The general excellence of his sanitary arrangements, and the character of his scientific observations and official reports, procured him the repeated acknowledgements of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Edward Owen, who expressed his approbation in a general order to the squadron, and recommended him for promotion. On his return to England, he was again appointed to Haslar, 8 April 1846. A few months later he was transferred to the Grappler, fitting for the West Coast of Africa; and in November of the same year, he joined the royal yacht Victoria & Albert, Captain Lord Adolphus FitzClarence. From that vessel, on the occasion of Her Majesty’s visit to Ireland, he was promoted to the rank of Surgeon on 19 October 1849. His next appointment was, 19 December following, to the Investigator, Captain Robert John Le Mesurier McClure, a vessel in which, sailing in search of Sir John Franklin he entered the polar seas through the Bering Strait, and became a participator in the honour of discovering the North-West Passage. He returned to England at the close of 1854, via Baffin Bay. During an absence of nearly five years in the Arctic regions, Dr. Armstrong, the naturalist and historian of the expedition, greatly mitigated the effects of hardship and privation endured by his brave companions, owing to the admirable means he adopted for the preservation of health; his services in this respect - for it is worthy of record, as an unprecedented fact, that during upwards of three years the Investigator lost not a single man - being frequently noticed in the despatches of Captain McClure. On the day the crew were paid off, he had the gratification of receiving from them a valuable gold chronometer-watch and chain, the former bearing the following inscription: “Presented, October 1854, to Alexander Armstrong, M.D., late Surgeon, H.M.S. Investigator, by the Petty Officers, Seaman and Marines of that ship, as a testimony of their sincere respect and gratitude for his unwaried professional skill and humanity during the unparalleled Arctic service which resulted in the discovery of the North-West Passage.” Dr. Armstrong’s last appointment afloat was in the Cornwallis, in which ship he served from 6 February 1855 until paid off in 1856, in the Baltic and on the North America and West India stations. In the Baltic he was present on 9 August at the bombardment of Sveaborg, and of the batteries at Saudhamn, where the Cornwallis, the senior officer’s ship, had 10 men woun