Lieutenant Wyatt Rawson’s journal that he kept during the 1875-76 British naval arctic expedition, and a printed transcript thereof.

Administrative / biographical background
Wyatt Rawson entered the navy in 1866. As a sub-lieutenant Rawson was specially mentioned in despatches for his energy and tact while serving with the Land Transport Corps in the Ashanti campaign in West Africa and was badly wounded in the Battle of Amafoal in January 1874. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in March 1874. He then served on the Nares Arctic expedition of 1875-76, the last naval attempt to reach the North Pole by sea. He was appointed third lieutenant of the DISCOVERY in April 1875, joined the ALERT in August 1875, and spent 132 days sledge travelling during the expedition which returned to England in November 1876. During the Egyptian campaign of 1882 Rawson served as naval aide-de-camp to Sir Garnett Wolseley and on 13 September he was critically wounded in the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir. Rawson was rapidly and specially promoted to commander but died on board the hospital ship CARTHAGE on 21 September, aged 29, and was buried in the Bighi cemetery, Malta.