James Wordie

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James Wordie photographed by Frank Hurley in 1914 aboard the Endurance

Sir James Mann Wordie , CBE (born April 26, 1889 in Glasgow , † January 16, 1962 in Cambridge ) was a Scottish polar explorer and geologist.

Wordie received her bachelor's degrees in geology from The Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow . He then continued his studies at St John's College in Cambridge and began his research after its completion in 1912.

His work brought him into contact with Frank Debenham and Raymond Priestley , the participants of the Terra Nova expedition of Robert Falcon Scott had been. Wordie's interest in expeditions and scientific discovery was reinforced by these acquaintances.

In 1914, Wordie was involved in Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition, officially known as the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition or later as the Endurance Expedition .

He led the team of scientists and also worked as a geologist. Despite the total failure of the expedition, Wordie continued his scientific research by making observations on oceanography and the Antarctic ice sheet , as well as collecting geological samples.

Wordie participated in a total of nine polar expeditions. In the 1920s and 1930s he made frequent trips to the Arctic to train young scientists . This new generation of polar explorers included a. Vivian Fuchs , Gino Watkins and August Courtauld (Augustine Courtauld; 1904–1959). Wordie was considered an expert on polar expeditions and few UK ventures in the field took place without his prior advice.

Wordie became Chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) and President of the Royal Geographical Society . During his tenure in the Society, he contributed to the successful planning of the ascent of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in. In his role as chairman of the SPRI, he assisted Fuchs in his crossing of Antarctica , the actual goal of Shackleton's endurance expedition.

In addition, Wordie Master of St John's College and knighted on February 12, 1957 for his contribution to British polar research as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir"). The Royal Geographic Society awarded him their Founders's Medal in 1933 . Since 1922 he was a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Wordie was a co-author of the Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook Series , which appeared during World War II .

Numerous geographical objects on Svalbard , Jan Mayen , Greenland and in the Antarctic are named after James Wordie , such as the Wordie Ice Shelf .

literature

  • Sir James Wordie - Exploration's elder statesman . In: The New Scientist . Vol. 3, No. 55, 1957, p. 24 f.
  • BH Farmer: Wordie, Sir James Mann (1889–1962) , rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed September 8, 2006 (subscription required).
  • Michael Smith: Polar Crusader: Sir James Wordie - Exploring the Arctic and Antarctic , Birlinn, Edinburgh 2004. ISBN 1-84158-292-1 . ( limited preview in Google Book search)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Knights and Dames: WAM-ZUR at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
  2. ↑ List of Gold Medal Winners from the Royal Geographic Society , accessed June 18, 2018.
  3. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 26, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wordie, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wordie, Sir James Mann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British geologist and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1962
Place of death Cambridge