Edward Eyre, explorer of the Australian interior and colonial administrator: presentation signature with accompanying autograph note, dated 20 April 1867.

Original ink signature of Edward Eyre, on front section of a small bifolium of notepaper (103 x 93 mm), with an autograph covering note by Eyre on the third side, written in the third person: ‘Mr. Eyre has much pleasure in presenting his autograph for Miss Christy’s collection as requested in Mr. Christy’s letter of the 2nd April. Adderley Hall, Market Drayton, 20th April 1867’; light original folds, fine condition.

Edward John Eyre (1815-1901) made three exploring expeditions in the interior of South Australia in 1839-40, and in 1840-41, in company with his Aboriginal companion Wylie, he became the first European to traverse the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land. From 1848 to 1853 he served as Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand’s New Munster Province; and from 1854 to 1865 he served as governor of several Caribbean island colonies, including Jamaica. Following his harsh suppression of the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion as Governor of Jamaica, he returned to England, where in the late 1860s he temporarily resided at Adderley Hall near Market Drayton, Shropshire, in part to escape the jurisdiction of the London courts during the protracted legal battles and public controversies over his conduct during the rebellion.