John Rymill
John Riddoch Rymill ( born March 13, 1905 in Penola, South Australia, † September 7, 1968 ) was an Australian polar explorer.
Life
Childhood and youth
Rymill was born in 1905 as the son of the farmer Robert Rymill and his wife Mary Edith in Penola in the South East of South Australia. The following year his father died in a car accident. The suffering from dyslexia Rymill initially received home schooling and went to a school in Adelaide later. From 1917 to 1922, he attended a school of the Church of England in Melbourne.
In 1927, he broke into the company of his mother to England, where he studied at the Royal Geographical Society Land surveying and navigation, later in the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University broadened his knowledge and also incidentally made the ticket.
First Expeditions
1930-31 he participated in the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to Greenland, under the direction of Gino Watkins ( 1907-1932 ) part. This was due to Rymill that a member of the expedition, Augustine Courtauld (1904-1959), again found and could be saved. In 1931, he presented with Wilfred Hampton ( 1907-1994 ) of Tasiilaq to Sisimiut back about 640 km on the Greenland ice sheet.
In 1932 he undertook with Watkins and two other explorers another expedition to the East Coast Grönländs. After Watkins was drowned in August while fishing in Tugtilikfjord, Rymill took over the leadership of the expedition.
Expedition to Graham Land
Rymill organized now own an expedition to Antarctica. Despite the great difficulties in finding sponsors during the economic crisis of the 1930s, he managed to put together an expedition to the west coast of the Antarctic continent. On September 10, 1934, he stood out on board the Penola from London to Port Lockroy in the lake. On January 22, 1935, the expedition reached Port Lockroy and met with the British research ship Discovery II, which also has a single-engined De Havilland Fox Moth transported among other equipment. In the following period, the Group established two bases, explored the Antarctica by dogsled and plane and proved here that, contrary to the presumption of Hubert Wilkins in Graham Land is not an island, but a part of the Antarctic Peninsula. In addition, they discovered the George VI Sound, which separates the Alexander I Island from the mainland. The expedition remained until March 1937 in the Antarctic, reaching England finally on August 4.
Other years
After the expedition Rymill has won many awards. In addition to the British Polar Medal ( Polar Medal ), both for its exploration of the Arctic and the Antarctic, he was awarded the Founders' Medal of the Royal Geographic Society and the David Livingstone Centenary Medal in gold of the American Geographic Society (AGS ). The AGS particularly praised the extensive, careful studies that were created during the expedition.
On September 16, 1938 Rymill married in England, the geographer Eleanor Mary Francis ( 1911-2003 ), whom he knew from his time at Cambridge University. Both then moved to Penola and devoted themselves to agriculture. During the Second World War Rymill served in the Reserve of the Royal Australian Navy. Rymill later improved in particular the irrigation of his land, and was a member of several companies to agriculture and horticulture. In 1968 he died at the age of 63 years, like his father, to the consequences of a car accident. He was buried in the cemetery of Penola.
According to him, a bay, a coastal and a cape in the British Antarctic Territory has been named, in addition, a peak of the Prince Charles Mountains in the Australian Antarctic Territory.
Swell
- William J. Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC - Clio, Santa Barbara, 2003, pp. 572ff. , ISBN 978-1576074220.
- John Béchervaise: Rymill, John Riddoch ( 1905-1968 ). In: Douglas Pike ( ed.) Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria 1966 ff (English)