A modest little flag made in the 1850s for Sir Henry Kellett, a distinguished 19th century Royal Navy officer with strong family roots in Tipperary, throws some much needed light on a little known chapter of Irish history, writes Michael Smith.

 

Behind a small piece of silk cloth, only a little larger than a typical tea towel and skilfully fashioned into a flag 175 years ago, lies an extraordinary and little known slice of Irish history and a remarkable legacy stretching into modern times.

The modest flag, which was made for an Irish naval officer in the 1850s and designed to be flown on a sledge, is the improbable link between famous figures like Queen Victoria and successive American presidents such as Kennedy and Reagan and a series of historic expeditions to the South Pole and the North West Passage involving Irish explorers like Francis Crozier and Ernest Shackleton.
The rare artefact, which has been valued at well over €100,000, has more recently been at the centre of a battle to prevent it disappearing into private hands and for the flag to be put on public display for the first time in 175 years.

The small sledge flag was made for Sir Henry Kellett, a distinguished 19th century Royal Navy officer with strong family roots in Tipperary. It is believed the Kellett family first bought land near Clonacody from the estates of King James II – the last Catholic king of England, Ireland and Scotland – in the early 1700s. By the 1850s, John Dalton Kellett, father of Henry Kellett, owned 800 acres around Clonacody and Fethard, a short distance from where the Coolmore stud stands today. The Kellett family lived in Tipperary until the mid-20th century and Clonacody House, an impressive Georgian property in Fethard purpose-built by the Kelletts, is still standing.

Sir Henry Kellett was born at Clonacody House on November 2, 1806 and entered the Royal Navy as a 15-year-old in 1822. He served with distinction for 49 years, rising steadily up the ranks to become Vice-Admiral. He was knighted in 1869 and took command of the China Station, which policed powerful colonial interests around Hong Kong, Singapore and China. Kellett retired to Clonacody where he died in 1875 at the age of 68. He is buried in the grounds of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Fethard.
Kellett is best known for serving on two expeditions to the Arctic in search of the missing Franklin Expedition. Sir John Franklin’s party – some 129 men and two well-stocked ships – was last seen in 1845 shortly before entering into the icy waterways of the Canadian Arctic in a doomed attempt to navigate the elusive North West Passage. With no sign of the men after three years, dozens of ships were sent north in search of missing explorers.

Kellett joined the hunt in 1848 when he sailed as captain on Herald, one of the earliest attempts to trace Franklin. He was despatched to the Arctic again in 1852 in command of Resolute, a newly built barque-rigged naval vessel. Unknown to the searchers, Franklin had been dead for five years and the impossible task leading the explorers out of the ice fell to the unfortunate Captain Francis Crozier from Banbridge, Franklin’s second-in-command. No one survived and it is likely that Crozier had perished by 1850, two years before Kellett sailed. Crozier’s body has never been found.
Kellett, captain of Resolute, carried the little memento from home among his personal possessions. The flag, which is made of silk, measures 60 x 89 centimetres (23ƒ x 35 inches) and carries the Latin motto Auxilium Ab Alto (Help From On High). It shows the Irish Harp in one corner and the British flag in the other. A plaque pin was later attached reading:
Arctic Expedition 1852
Sledge Flag of
Captain Henry Kellett CB
Commanding H.M.S. Resolute.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own