A rare bronze Polar Medal awarded to a Halesworth man who accompanied explorer Sir Douglas Mawson on an expedition to the Antarctic in 1929-1930 is expected to sell for between £2,000 and £2,500 at an auction at Spink in Bloomsbury, London, today.

The octagonal medal was awarded to Halesworth-born Frederic Sones, known as Fred, who was the cook on the Mawson Expedition.

In 1962, 32 years after the expedition and when Mr Sones was in his late seventies, a mountain in Antarctica – Mount Sones – was named after him by the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia. Mount Sones is on the north side of the Beaver Glacier, two miles west of Mount Reedin the Tula Mountains.

The Polar Medal is awarded for 'extreme human endeavour against the appalling weather and conditions that exist in the Arctic and Antarctic.' A total of 880 silver and 245 bronze Polar Medals have been issued for Antarctic expeditions. However Mr Sones's medal is particularly rare because of the Antarctic 1929-1930 clasp attached to the white ribbon of the medal. Only 16 bronze medals with the clasp were issued.

Mr Sones was born in Halesworth in 1885 and was 82 when he died in London In September 1967.