Edward Lawton Moss was born in 1843. He was educated at the Royal College of Science in Dublin and studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, graduating MD from St. Andrew's in 1862. In 1864, he became a surgeon with the Royal Navy, later taking charge of the Royal Naval Hospital at Esquimalt on Vancouver Island between 1872 and 1874. He was appointed surgeon and artist in HMS Alert on the British Arctic Expedition, 1875-1876 (leader George Strong Nares), sent by the Admiralty to attempt to reach the North Pole by way of Smith Sound and to explore the coasts of Greenland and adjacent lands. Although the attempt to reach the North Pole was unsuccessful, the expedition made some geographical discoveries and returned with a large quantity of scientific data. He died in 1880.
Published work Shores of the polar sea, a narrative of the Arctic expedition of 1875-1876 . Illustrated by sixteen chromo-lithographs and numerous engravings made on the spot by the author by Edward Lawton Moss, Marcus Ward & Co. London (1878)
From the guide to the Edward Moss collection, 1875, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
