Posts Tagged ‘John Rae!’
Orcadian poet commemorates John Rae’s arrival at Westminster
After the dedication ceremony at Westminster Abbey, back at the Scottish office in Dover House, Orcadian poet Harvey Johnston read a wonderful, Burnsian poem entitled Rae in the Abbey. He graciously agreed to let me publish part of it. The final four stanzas run as follows. I have no photo of Johnston, but the above…
Read MoreEyewitness report from Westminster Abbey: John Rae lives!
–> LONDON, England – The ledger stone is brilliantly placed. It reads: “John Rae / 1813 – 1893 / Arctic Explorer.” Newly installed in Westminster Abbey in the heart of London, it is situated directly beneath the elaborate bust of Sir John Franklin. The effect is one of completion. Given the privilege of offering “a…
Read MoreNew edition sheds light on explorer who discovered the Fate of Franklin
Hats off to the folks at Touchwood Editions. They’re launching this new edition of John Rae’s Arctic Correspondence on the same day, September 30, as Rae is to be welcomed into Westminster Abbey. Yes, these are author’s copies. I contributed a Foreword to this edition. While you can pick up a used copy of the…
Read MoreHow Lady Franklin led Charles Dickens to disgrace himself
In Lady Franklin’s Revenge, I devote 130 pages to showing not only how Lady Franklin orchestrated the search for Sir John Franklin, but how she manipulated public opinion after explorer John Rae returned with the first news of the fate of her husband’s expedition. In this excerpt, we find her getting Charles Dickens involved. .…
Read MoreJohn Rae enters Westminster Abbey, redeems Sir John Franklin
With a Canadian search expedition scouring the Northwest Passage for the Erebus and the Terror, several Arctic historians have turned their backs on Sir John Franklin’s claim to fame. By insisting that “a substantial section” of the Passage remained undiscovered well into the 1850s, these would-be guardians of exploration orthodoxy repudiate Franklin’s claim to discovery…
Read MoreArctic Explorer John Rae nears Westminster Abbey
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…
Read MoreOur Hero says goodbye to the magic of Orkney
Our Hero says goodbye to the statue of John Rae, erected in the heart of Stromness on Sept. 30, 2013 to mark the explorer’s 200th birthday. Yes, Rae lives on in the hearts of many. This statute will be the first thing you see when you get off the ferry from mainland Scotland, which is…
Read MoreLimited edition whisky says Happy Bicentenary!
What you see here, from as close as you are likely to get, is a gorgeous bottle of Highland Park single malt scotch whisky. It comes from a limited edition of 30 bottles created to mark the bicentenary of the birth of John Rae. The Scottish Orcadian explorer was born 200 years ago today. After…
Read MoreThe Hall of Clestrain will rise again!
Here in Stromness, we filled in some blanks while visiting the Hall of Clestrain, John Rae’s boyhood home. The wealthy Honeyman family, descended from an early bishop of Orkney, built the place in the 1760s. They had just returned from a trip to Italy, where symmetry and balance were all the rage, and applied those…
Read MoreBritish MP is taking John Rae into Westminster Abbey
STROMNESS, ORKNEY – A John Rae plaque is going into Westminster Abbey. Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney in the British House of Commons, announced this evening that in 2014, a plaque will be mounted in the Abbey recognizing the Orcadian explorer as “the discoverer of the final link in the Northwest Passage.” Carmichael made the…
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