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Endurance Obituaries 
Endurance Obituaries

JAMES MANN WORDIE

(26/04/1889 – 16/01/1962)
BORN : GLASGOW. SCOTLAND
DIED : CAMBRIDGE. ENGLAND
NICKNAME : JOCK
DUTY : GEOLOGIST
Wordie

Awarded Silver Polar Medal
Jock Wordie, the expedition Geologist, and head of the scientific staff, was Born in Glasgow. Scotland in 1889 and was the second son of John and Jane Wordie. In 1910 he entered St. John’s College . Cambridge. and by 1914 had gained a degree in Geology and was appointed the university demonstrator in Petrology. In his spare time he became something of an accomplished rock climber and climbed in Switzerland and Germany.

Wordie had been recommended to Shackleton by non other than Raymond Priestley who had sailed as Geologist with Shackleton on the Nimrod expedition.

Shackleton liked Wordie, and he was popular with the rest of the crew. Famed for his dry humour and much loved for his willingness to trade his tobacco for rock specimens with those who’s supply had long since been smoked whilst they were stranded on Elephant Island.

Wordie always said that for him , “the worst part of the whole expedition was the open boat journey to Elephant Island”.

During the First World War he served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery and saw a great deal of action. He was wounded in the left leg at the Battle of Armentiere.

After the war ended Wordie returned to Cambridge and lectured in Geology. On 21st March 1923 he married Gertrude Mary Henderson in London ,at St. Columba’s Church of Scotland. In his professional life, Wordie was probably the most successful and renowned of all the expedition members. Here follows just a few of his achievements, which make very impressive reading to say the least.

1919Scottish Spitzbergen Expedition. Geologist and 2nd in command.
19202nd Scottish Spitzbergen Expedition . Geologist and 2nd in command.
1921Leader of expedition to Jan Mayan Island. First accent of the Beerenberg.
1923Leader of expedition to East Greenland. (Abandoned due to dense pack ice.)
1926Leader of expedition to East Greenland.
1929 Leader of expedition to East Greenland. First accent of Petermann Bjerg. (Peak)
1933Appointed Senior Tutor. St. John’s College . Cambridge.
1934Appointed Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society. ( a post which he held from 1934 till 1948)
1934Leader of expedition to Baffin Bay. West Greenland.
1937Appointed Chairman of Scott Polar Research Institute ( a post which he held from 1937 till 1955 )
1939Director of Naval Intelligence . Cambridge. (Polar Regions) ( a post which he held from 1939 till 1945 )
1944Awarded Gold Medal by Scottish Geographical Society.
1947Appointed C.B.E. ( Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by King George VI. Appointed Commander of the Order of St. Olaf of Norway by King Haakon.
1950 Appointed President and Senior Tutor . St. John’s College. Cambridge.
1951Appointed President of the Royal Geographical Society, a post which he held until 1954
1952Elected Master of St. John’s College. Cambridge ( 1952 – 1959 )
1957Knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II


Wordie died on 16th January 1962 at Grange Court, Pinehurst, Grange Road, Cambridge. His ashes are interred in the Wordie family lair at the burial grounds of the Church of the Holy Rude. Stirling . Scotland.

With thanks to Peter J. Wordie ( son of James Mann Wordie)
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Obituary Contents
Introduction
Summary
Bakewell
Blackborow
Cheetham
Clark
Crean
Gooch
Green
Greenstreet
Holness
How
Hudson
Hurley
Hussey
James
Kerr
Macklin
Marston
McCarthy
Mcilroy
Mcleod
Mcnish
Orde-Lees
Rickinson
Shackleton
Stephenson
Vincent
Wild
>> Wordie<<
Worsley
SS Yelcho
Elephant Island
The Endurance Dogs