Orders, Decorations & Medals - Australian Singles

Lot 5164    Session 19 (4.30pm Friday 25 November)    Orders, Decorations & Medals - Australian Singles

Estimate $10,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $22,000

POLAR MEDAL, in silver (GVR in Admiral's uniform) - clasp - Antarctic 1912-14. J.F.Hurley 'Aurora'. Impressed. Toned, extremely fine.

This is the missing and original Polar medal with clasp 1912-14 as issued to J.F.Hurley. This medal was given to John Stanley Cumpsten as a wedding present in 1940 by Frank Hurley.

James Francis 'Frank' Hurley (1885-1962) was an Antarctic explorer, adventurer, pioneer, photographer, film maker and aviator. He was born in Glebe, Sydney in October 1890. Buying his first camera at the age of 15 he was a partner in a photography and postcard business by the time he was 30, already displaying in his photographs the daring, imagination and originality for which he was to become famous. He accompanied Sir Douglas Mawson on the 1911-14 Austrlasian Antarctic Expedition and sledged to the South Magnetic Pole. He also served with the Shackleton Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17.

Later in 1917 he joined the A.I.F. overseas as offical war photographer where he pioneered the then infant art of colour photography. His colour plates of the first world war are believed to be unique. In the post war years he travelled extensively in Australia and New Guinea with his camera and in 1924 published the first of more than a dozen books. In 1929 he returned to the Antarctic again with Sir Douglas Mawson as official photographer to the British/Australian/New Zealand Research Expedition.

With the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the second A.I.F., again as official war photographer, for which service he was awarded the OBE in 1941. In his later years he published a series of colour photography books on Australia, remaining active in his profession until his death in 1962.

John Stanley Cumpston (1909-1986) diplomat, geographer, historian and publisher. He was born in Perth in June 1909. In WWII he served at Tobruk in 1941 and Lebanon before returning to Australia in February 1943. In 1939 Cumpston had assisted in the preparation and publication of the first reliable map of the Antarctic which led to him being elected in 1940 as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society London. He was awarded a doctorate of letters (1949) by the University of Melbourne for his studies in the geography of the Antarctic and of the Pacific. In 1966 Cumpston Massif was named in his honour for his contribution to the knowledge of Antarctic. He died in August 1986 in Canberra.