Brackets

• [] = context, format

• <> = uncertain

• <…> = illegible

Ranks & Titles

• Capt. = Captain

• Comm. = Commander

• Lieut. = Lieutenant

• Mids. = Midshipman

• ass Surg. = Assistant Surgeon

• Hon = Honorable

Names

• Chas = Charles

• Jn = John

• Rich = Richard

Months

• Jany = January

• Mar = March

• Apr = April

• Aug = August

• Sept = September

• Oct = October

• Nov = November

• Dec = December

Terms

• Co. = Company

• HMS = Her Majesty's Ship

• Messrs. = Misters

¹ The other men mentioned are: Patrick John Blake (here as John Patrick), Harry Eyres, George Henry Seymour, Charles Frederick, John Daly (listed twice), Herbert Schomberg, Robert Dashwood Fowler, John Hay, Honorable Mark Kerr, George Campbell Fowler, George Thomas Maitland Purvis, Francis John Diggens, Isaac Newton Thomas Saulez, Henry Anne Norman, Richard Purvis, and John Dunbar Tweeddale.

² First Opium War (1839-42), also referred to as China Expedition in contemporary accounts.

³ China (War) Medal, established in 1846 to decorate all participants of the First Opium War.
Whether the medal was ever awared to Gore is not known, since HMS Volage is omitted from the official medal roll entirely (despite seeing action in the war) and no reply of the Admirality to the above request could be found at the time of this publication.

⁴ On board of HMS Volage Gore participated in the Battles of Kowloon (September 4, 1839) and Chuenpi (November 3, 1839).
HMS Beagle did not see action during the First Opium War, instead surveying the coastline of the Colony of New South Wales / Australia. Thus, it is unclear why the commission is mentioned here in the first place.

⁵ Halford Messrs. & Co. was a “navy and prize [agency] for officers of the [British] Royal Navy” (Navy List (September 1846), p. 182) situated at 41 Norfolk Street, Strand, London (UK).
It was not unheard of that an agency would forward their client’s request for a medal to the Admirality, especially in the person’s absence. At the time the above letter was written Gore had already left port aboard HMS Erebus.

Note 1

• O'Byrne, William Richard (1849): A Naval Biographical Dictionary, Comprising the Life and Services of Every Living Officer in Her Majesty's Navy, from the Rank of Admiral of the Fleet to that of Lieutenant, inclusive. London (UK), John Murray (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• Officers’ Service Record (Series III), in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 196

Note 2

• Lovell, Julia (2011): The Opium War. Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China. London (UK), Picador

• Bingham, John Elliott (1843, 2nd ed.): Narrative of the Expedition to China. From the Commencement of the War to Its Termination in 1842 (vol. 1). London (UK), Henry Colburn (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• McPherson, Duncan (1842): Two Years in China. Narrative of the Chinese Expedition. From Its Formation in April 1840, til April 1842. London (UK), Saunders and Otley (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

Note 3

• Navy List (September 1846). London (UK), John Murray (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• Medal Rolls. Nominal Roll of Officers and Men Employed in H.M. Ships during the Operations in China, in: National Archives, Kew, London (UK), ADM 171/12

Note 4

• Charles Elliott to Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (September 5, 1839), in: Correspondence Relating to China (1840). London (UK), T. R. Harrison (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• Charles Elliott to Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (November 5, 1839), in: Correspondence Relating to China (1840). London (UK), T. R. Harrison (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• Stokes, John Lort (1846): Discoveries in Australia. With an Account of the Coast and Rivers. Explored and Survey during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43 (vol. 1). London (UK), T. and W. Boone (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• Stokes, John Lort (1846): Discoveries in Australia. With an Account of the Coast and Rivers. Explored and Survey during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43 (vol. 2). London (UK), T. and W. Boone (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

Note 5

• Navy List (September 1846). London (UK), John Murray (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• Navy List (June 1854). London (UK), John Murray (via Archive.org, accessed on April 7, 2025)

• Harry Goodsir to Jane Ross Goodsir (May 19, 1845), in: Potter, Russell et al. (2023, ed.): May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth. Letters of the Lost Franklin Arctic Expedition. London (UK) et al. McGill-Queen’s University Press