James Wordie
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Sir James Mann Wordie, CBE (26 April 1889 – 16 January 1962) was a Scottish polar explorer and geologist. In 1914, Wordie joined Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic, known as the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, where he acted as geologist and chief of scientific staff. Despite the overall failure of the expedition—including the beset ship Endurance, caught up in the Weddell Sea until destroyed by ice in 1915—Wordie maintained the morale of the expedition, made scientific observations regarding oceanography and the ice pack, and acquired important geological specimens.
Wordie was born at Partick, in the former county Lanarkshire of Scotland. He obtained a BSc in geology from The Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow. He graduated from St John's College, Cambridge as an advanced student in 1912, and began research work. His occupation brought him in contact with Frank Debenham and Raymond Priestley, who were members of the second Antarctic expedition of Robert Falcon Scott. Wordie's interest in expedition and scientific discovery was heightened by these two men.
[edit] References
- B. H. Farmer, "Wordie, Sir James Mann (1889–1962)", rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 8 September 2006 (subscription required).
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