Letter from Dr John Rae, Kirkwall

• Reference:GB 241 D1/102
• Dates of Creation:1865
• Name of Creator:
  Orkney Archives, 1994-, Local archive
• Language of Material:English
• Physical Description:
  0.01 Linear Metres

• Scope and Content

  Letter to Mr Scott, with Orkney news, 1865.

• Administrative / Biographical History

  Dr. John Rae was born in 1813 in Orphir, Orkney, where his father was a factor and later an agent for the Hudson's Bay Company. He was educated at Edinburgh University and qualified as a surgeon in 1833, and was appointed surgeon at the Hudson's Bay Company's Moose factory in 1834. Over the next thirty years he undertook much exploration and surveying of Northern Canada, and was a member of many expeditions, including those searching for the missing Sir John Franklin (1786 - 1845). He was in Kirkwall from the mid-1860s, and later in life he lived and worked in London.

• Access Information

  Open