A relic of Sir John Franklin's last expedition 1845-48. A fiddle-pattern silver table fork belonging to Lieutenant John Irving (HMS 'Terror'). It was obtained from the Inuit at Repulse Bay in 1854 by the Rae Expedition. The Inuit said that they had found the material at a camp to the north west of the mouth of the Back River where a party of Europeans had died of starvation.

The fork has Exeter hallmarks with the date code for 1824 and the maker's mark of George Ferris (the initials 'GF'). The monogram 'JI' is engraved on the back of the handle and the initials 'WW' are roughly scratched on the back and front of the handle. William Wentzell was an Able Seaman on HMS 'Terror'. He was 33 at the time he joined the expedition and came from London. The initials of crew members marked on officer's silver cutlery suggests that it was distributed amongst the men in an attempt to save it.

The fork was presented to Greenwich Hospital by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 2 December 1854.

John Irving was the fourth son of John Irving, Writer to the Signet, was born in Edinburgh on 8 February, 1815. He was trained at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth where he was awarded the second mathematical prize. After serving for a few years in the Navy, he left in 1837 and emigrated to New South Wales. Six years later he returned to the United Kingdom and rejoined the Navy. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 23 March, 1843, serving in ‘Volage’ and ‘Excellent’ in the 1840s. He was one of the three lieutenants on HMS ‘Terror’ in Sir John Franklin’s last Arctic expedition. His body, identified by the prize medal, was found by Lieutenant Schwatka at Point Victory, King William Island. Schwatka sent the bones back to Irving’s relations in Scotland. They were carried across the Atlantic on board SS ‘Circassia’ and interred with full military honours at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh on 7 January 1881.