James Mann Wordie
Labrador Sea, Greenland
J.M. Wordie, geographer and leader of the 1934 Expedition, was an experienced explorer who once sailed with Sir Ernest Shackleton and went on to lead five expeditions to the Arctic between 1923 and 1937. P.D. Baird, one of his compatriots on the 1934 Expedition, said of Wordie: "few men of [that] generation have done more to put polar exploration and research on a scientific footing" (Baird 1962).
Source: T.T. Paterson
Photographer: M. H. W. Ritchie.
On a recent trip to Moscow, someone who had studied geography greeted me and commented how fundamental James Mann Wordie's work had been for Greenland. I was unaware of this, but learned that other countries obviously valued the work highly, and used the information to further their work.