A recent flurry
of newspaper reports made it official. They appeared in The Scotsman, The Orcadian, The Glasgow Sunday Herald, and The Times (Scottish edition). Arctic explorer
John Rae is soon to be recognized in Westminster Abbey.

David Ross,
Highland Correspondent for the Herald,
produced a quote from the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverand Dr. John Hall.
Following discussions with Alistair Carmichael, who is Secretary of State for
Scotland and MP for Orkney and Shetland, Dr. Hall said:

“I have
agreed that a memorial should be placed to Dr John Rae of Orkney in the Abbey
near that to Sir John Franklin. I plan to dedicate a ledger stone to the Arctic
explorer in the Chapels of St John the Evangelist, St Michael and St Andrew to
the west of the North Transept on September 30.” See for yourselves by clicking here.

Another excellent piece, which
appeared in The Orcadian, drew
attention to The John Rae Society website, which is conducting a fund-raising
compaign.  

Many of you know all this. I
highlight it here to put it on the record. The Forces of Darkness (those who,
having a vested interest, continue to undermine John Rae) are with us still. As we approach Westminster, we
can expect a flurry of denial, distortion, and obfuscation. Nobody familiar with the three
books illustrated here — Fatal Passage,
Lady Franklin’s Revenge, and The
Arctic Journals of John Rae — will be surprised. John Rae lives!