John Bertie Cator was born in 1820. He entered the Royal Navy, serving as mate in HMS Wellesley and later served in HMS Herald during the China War of 1842. Promoted lieutenant in 1842, he joined HMS Virago in the Mediterranean between 1843 and 1846. He was appointed lieutenant in command of HMS Intrepid, the tender to HMS Assistance (Erasmus Ommanney), on the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-1851 (leader Horatio Austin), sent by the Admiralty to search for Sir John Franklin's missing Northwest Passage expedition by way of Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound. During the expedition, Ommanney discovered the first evidence that Franklin had in fact reached the Canadian Arctic, finding signs of a field camp at Cape Riley, Devon Island, and a cairn and other relics on Beechey Island, which was subsequently shown to have been Franklin's winter quarters in 1845 and 1846. Cator retired as captain in 1867, later becoming a conservator of the River Humber.
From the guide to the John Cator collection, 1850-1852, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
