John Torrington

He was part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition to chart unexplored areas of what is now Nunavut, Canada, find the Northwest Passage, and make scientific observations.

[3] Torrington was a part of Sir John Franklin's final expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a sea route to Asia, via the northern edge of North America.

In 1976, the graves were rediscovered on Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada and the headboards (presumed to be the originals) were transferred to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

Beattie believed that the canned food was the most likely source of the lead[12] and argued that 'lead played an important role in the declining health of the entire crews of the Erebus and Terror.

'[13] However, Franklin historian Russell Potter has pointed out that 'We know so little about the average exposure of a typical person in mid-nineteenth century Britain that we lack a reliable baseline to which to compare the Beechey island bodies....Further studies, looking both at the Beechey Island remains and at bones recovered from King William Island have shown a wide variety of levels of exposure, ranging from negligible to quite high....Torrington's levels were high (413-657 ppm) but Braine (145-280 ppm) and Hartnell (183-313) had much lower levels....Lead may well have been a factor for some, but the effect of this exposure on the expedition as a whole is unclear.'

Authors Margaret Atwood and Mordecai Richler were also inspired by the photograph, and the account of the research provided by Beattie and John G. Geiger in their book Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition.

Atwood wrote a short story, "The Age of Lead", and Richler included references to the research and the Franklin expedition itself in his novel Solomon Gursky Was Here.