Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant J. H. C. East, Royal Navy

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, no clasp (Lieut., R.N., H.M.S. Myrmidon); Khedive’s Star 1884-6 good very fine (2) £250-300

James Henry Cunningham East was born in Kingstown, Co. Dublin in March 1858 and entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet in Britannia in January 1871, aged 12 years. Advanced to Sub. Lieutenant in March 1877, he served aboard H.M.S. Warrior between May and August 1878, which famous ship may now be seen at Portsmouth, fully restored.

East next joined the survey ship Alert, an appointment that lasted until September 1882 and witnessed his advancement to Lieutenant. During that period the Alert, commanded by Captain G. S. Nares, the famous Arctic explorer, carried out an extensive survey in South American waters and in the South Pacific, details of which appear in British Oceanographic Vessels:

‘The Alert sailed from Plymouth in September 1878 via Madeira, St. Vincent, Montevideo and the Falkland Islands, reaching the Strait of Magellan on New Year’s Day 1879. Throughout 1879 and the first half of 1880 the Alert surveyed the coast of Patagonia, Nares being recalled and replaced by Captain J. L. P. Maclear, his second-in-command on the Challenger, in spring 1879. Leaving South America in June 1880, the Alert sailed via Tahiti and Fiji to Sydney, arriving in January 1881. After six months surveying off the eastern and northern coasts of Australia the ship sailed to Singapore for a refit where she was ordered to survey Amirante and neighbouring islands in the south-western Indian Ocean. These surveys were conducted between March and May 1882 and the Alert then returned to England via South Africa, St. Helena and the Azores, arriving at Plymouth in September.’

A full account of the expedition by the ship’s surgeon, R. W. Coppinger, was published in London in 1885, under the title Cruise of the Alert: Four Years in Patagonia, Polynesian and Mascarine Waters, 1878-82.

Passing his examinations for 2nd Class Assistant Surveyor in September 1884, while serving in the Myrmidon, another survey vessel, East witnessed active service off the Sudan in the same ship, but sadly his promising career was cut short in January 1890, when he was ‘discharged dead’ from the Rambler, aged just 31 years.