Graham Gore entered the Royal Navy in 1820, serving as a midshipman at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. He was appointed mate in HMS Terror on the British Naval Exploring Expedition, 1836-1837 (leader George Back), instructed by the Admiralty to sail to Wager Bay and then trace the coast by boat as far as Point Turnagain, thus completing the survey of the north coast of Canada. Back and his officers charted parts of the northeast coast of Southampton Island. Gore was promoted lieutenant during the expedition.
On his return, Gore saw service during the capture of Aden in 1839 and in the China War in 1840. He was appointed first lieutenant in HMS Erebus on the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition, 1845-1848 (leader Sir John Franklin), sent to search for a Northwest Passage beyond Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait in the unexplored region south-west of Barrow Strait. Sailing from London in company with HMS Terror in May 1845, the expedition was last seen heading for Lancaster Sound by two whalers in northern Baffin Bay in late July 1845. After that, the expedition disappeared and Europeans never again saw its members alive. Many searches were conducted for the missing expedition, during the course of which the main facts regarding the route taken and final fate of the expedition were established. The two vessels had become beset north of King William Island, where, according to a record left by Gore in May 1847, they had spent the winter of 1846 to 1847. A message appended later by Captain James Fitzjames added that Franklin had died on 11 June 1847 and indicated that Gore had died before the 105 survivors had abandoned the two vessels on 22 April 1848 to set out on their ill-fated journey toward Back River. Gore had been promoted commander in November 1846 during the expedition.
From the guide to the Graham Gore collection, 1847, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
