Bence Jones Island in Shepherd Bay, Nunavut: a little known tribute to the legendary physician and chemist’s “thé de voyage”

Abstract

Henry Bence Jones is among the esteemed physicians of the mid-19th century. Eighteen biographical medical journal articles, published between 1952 and 2021, describe his life and contributions to medicine. Unmentioned, however, is an island in the waters of Shepherd Bay in northern Canada, now Nunavut, designated Bence Jones Island, by the British explorer John Rae in 1854. Rae had sailed from Great Britain to the regions extending north of Hudson’s Bay in search of information regarding Sir John Franklin and 133 other officers and men who departed from the Kingdom of Great Britain in two ships in 1845 to search for the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean; they disappeared. In anticipation of Rae’s voyage to search for evidence of Franklin’s expedition, Bence Jones provided a special preparation of tea that could be drunk cold, if necessary. It was so meaningful to the crew of Rae’s ship that it resulted in Rae naming an island near Boothia Isthmus in Shepherd Bay in recognition of this contribution to the contentment of his men under arduous conditions and in acknowledgment of Bence Jones’s professional standing, upon which we comment. Rae’s report of his voyage in 1855, cited herein, mentioned the island and showed its position on a map of the region. We have located it on a current map of the waterways and landmasses of Nunavut using Google Earth Pro by showing its position at the approximate coordinates of latitude and longitude cited by Rae.