369

Obituaries
Johannes Jacobus la Grange, meteorologist on the
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955-58)
and subsequently leader of the first South African National
Antarctic Expedition (1959-61), died suddenly on 21
April 1999 at his daughter's home in South Africa at the
age of 71.

La Grange was born on 13 October 1927 at Ladismith
in the western Cape Province of South Africa. Coming
from an unsophisticated background of hard-working and
down-to-earth Afrikaners of seventeenth-century French
Huguenot stock, he was educated at the De Villiers Graaf
High School in Villiersdorp in the western Cape, and he
obtained his matriculation certificate at the age of 17. He
was then employed by the South African Weather Bureau
in Pretoria, and subsequently took charge of several weather
stations in South Africa. From 1950 to 1952 and again in
1954 he served as meteorologist at Marion Island, where
he became involved in detailed bird observations in addition
to his normal duties.

In 1955 la Grange was initially seconded by the South
African Weather Bureau for one year to participate in
preparations for the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic
Expedition (TAE). In fact, he was later selected as the
expedition's meteorologist, and, at the time, Vivian Fuchs
remarked: 'Hannes was a blind date, but we need not have
worried as he was as solid in character as he was tall and
heavy in build.'

La Grange was an extremely popular member of the
expedition. He was both meticulous and painstaking in all
he did, and during the crossing of Antarctica he participated
in the seismic programme, in addition to his meteorological
duties. He achieved the distinction of being the first South
African to set foot at the geographical South Pole. On his
return to South Africa after the TAE, la Grange resumed
his duties in the South African Weather Bureau and also
began part-time studies in physical geography and zoology
at the University of Pretoria, where he obtained his degree
in 1962.

In 1959 he was appointed leader of the first South
African National Antarctic Expedition and was immediately
faced with the daunting task of selecting an appropriate
team for the expedition. His experience gained both at
Marion Island and on the TAE served him well in laying
the foundations for the success of the first South African
National Antarctic Expedition and its successors. Taking
over Norway Station was a challenge, but his previous
experience stood him in good stead in his fair, tactful, but
firm handling of personnel, for which he was greatly
respected, and led to bonds of friendship that persisted for
decades. He took part in a six-week dog-sledge journey
with Victor von Brunn and others into the hitherto unknown
region south of SANAE to study the geology, glaciology,

Fig. 1. Hannes la Grange in a typical moment.

and meteorology. During this journey, he encountered the
worst blizzard he had ever experienced in Antarctica, but
this did not deter him from achieving the main objectives
of the journey.

Two years after his return from the Antarctic, la Grange
resigned from the South African Weather Bureau and took
up a post in the South African Council for the Development
of Natural Resources. His interests had moved
progressively from meteorology towards town and regional
planning; he obtained an MSc for his dissertation on this
subject. Having held successive posts in the Department
of Planning and Environment, la Grange was appointed
director of town and regional planning for the Orange Free
State. He held this post from 1977 until his retirement in
1987. At the age of 60, he received a PhD in town and
regional planning from the University of Potchefstroom.
This demonstrated one of his most impressive personal
characteristics — his sustained perseverance and tenacity
throughout his life. He remained in Bloemfontein after his
retirement, working as a private consultant. He later
moved to Jeffreys Bay on the Cape coast, continuing his



370 OBITUARIES

consultancy business and acting as a consultant to the local
municipality. Increasingly, he became involved in
community affairs, actively serving his church. He
volunteered to write a short history of his local church
congregation, but it turned out to be a fairly detailed history
of the local area from the days of Khoikhoi to the present.
He also began writing a book on the South African
involvement in Antarctic research, but, sadly, this was not
completed.

La Grange received many distinctions. For his work on
the TAE, he was awarded the Polar Medal (which he
received from Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham
Palace) and also a bronze replica of the Gold Medal of the
Royal Geographical Society. In 1958 he received a Medal
of Honour from the South African Academy for Science
and Art for his participation in the TAE and also a medal
from the Explorers'Club of New York. In 1964 he was the
first recipient of the South African Antarctic medal, in
recognition of his outstanding achievements as leader of
SANAE 1 and his work on Marion Island.

Several years after the return of SANAE 1, la Grange
was instrumental in founding the South African Antarctic
Club, becoming its first chairman. Later, he played an
important part in the formation of the South African
Antarctic Association, which is open to all those South
Africans interested in Antarctica and Antarctic affairs.

LaGrange was a prolific, meticulous, and wide-ranging
writer. From his desk emanated countless publications,
ranging from detailed papers on meteorological
observations during the TAE and 'Notes on the birds and
mammals of Marion Island and Antarctica' to memoranda
on town and regional planning and even to pamphlets of
parochial interest.

La Grange will always be remembered for his humility
and modesty, his profound sense of duty and responsibility,
his loyalty to others, his integrity, patience, and
thoroughness, and his sincere and pleasant nature. All
close to him are the richer for having known and associated
with 'the man with a very subtle sense of humour.'

He is survived by his wife, Mettie, a daughter, and two
sons.
Victor von Brunn
Ray Adie

Hilda Richardson, secretary general of the International
Glaciological Society (IGS) from 1953 to 1993, died
suddenly on 5 February 2000 after a long illness, aged 75.

Richardson was born on 28 May 1924 in Bolton,
Lancashire. After completing her education in Bolton, she
worked in the Meteorological Office briefly at the end of
World War II before going to Newnham College,
Cambridge, where she read geography. In Cambridge, she
was exposed to the inspirational Vaughan Lewis and the
talented group he had attracted to work with him on
Austerdalsbre, a small glacier in Norway, and also to
Gordon Manley, noted for his research on snow and
climate. Following her graduation in 1948, Richardson

went to work for Unilever at Port Sunlight.
In 1935 Gerald Seligman, an industrial chemist and a

skier with a passion for snow and ice, and James Wordie,
a geologist and academic who had been with Shackleton in
the Antarctic, began discussions about forming a national
body to further studies of snow and ice. It would bring
together British groups involved with both the Snow and
Glacier Commissions of the International Association of
Hydrology. The resulting Association for the Study of
Snow and Ice was reborn after the war as the British
Glaciological Society, with Seligman as president, honorary
secretary, and editor of Journal of Glaciology. In 1951
Colin Bertram, directoroftheScottPolarResearch Institute,
agreed to provide facilities for the Society. By now
Seligman was anxious to reduce his role in the running of
the Society. The management structure was reviewed and
a decision made to hire a secretary to be based at SPRI.
Audrey Ashworth was appointed, but resigned a year later.
In 1953 Richardson was appointed secretary to the Society,
a position she held for the next 40 years.

At this time, the Society's office consisted of a small
desk on the top floor of the Scott Polar Research Institute,
known as the gallery. After the Institute was extended,
Richardson moved to a larger room above the director's
office. From here, and from her home at Street Farm in
Shudy Camps, she interacted with visitors to the Institute
and welcomed glaciologists from around the world, often
prevailing on them to contribute to the work of the IGS.

On the strength of her position as manager of a learned
society, Richardson was able to join the Soroptimist
International of Cambridge, a service club for professional
women. She rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming
local president in 1962, president of the London and
Eastern Divisional Union in 1967, federation president of
Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland in
1973, and finally president of Soroptimist International in
1977. The internationalism of this organization came to be
mirrored in Richardson's approach to the IGS. She realized
that for the Society to survive and grow, it was necessary
not only to recognize the international nature of research
on snow and ice, but to reach out to scientists everywhere.
In 1962 the British Glaciological Society changed to the
Glaciological Society and, in 1971, added 'International'
to its name. By 1969 the Society had managed to acquire
its first non-British president, with the election of the
Swedish scientist Valter Schytt. Richardson reached out
to scientists in Japan, the Soviet Union, and China,
organizing tours, symposia, and workshops, arranging for
members of the Society to visit those countries and
welcoming their scientists to Cambridge and into the
management of the Society.

To facilitate and increase the flow of glaciological
ideas and information, Richardson organized symposia on
all aspects of snow and ice, the Society always having
maintained that glaciology covered the entire cryosphere,
not just glaciers. In 1980 papers from these symposia,
which had been published in Journal of Glaciology, began



OBITUARIES 371

to be published in a parallel publication called Annals of
Glaciology, which to date runs to more than 30 timely
thematic volumes that periodically summarize the state of
the science.

During the 40 years Richardson served the International
Glaciological Society, she helped transform it from a
group of British snow and ice enthusiasts into an
international learned society, acknowledged worldwide as
the premier organization for glaciologists and the publisher
of the two principal international glaciological serials —
Journal of Glaciology and Annals of Glaciology. A
measure of the high standards insisted on right from the
start, and maintained today, is that both serials are included
in the Science Citation Index.

Richardson's contributions to the development of
glaciology were recognized during her lifetime by the
award of honorary membership in 1986; in the naming of
Richardson Peak on the east side of Vallot Glacier in the
Tyndall Mountains, Antarctica (67°20'S, 67°21'W); and
by the creation of the Richardson Medal to honour her on
her retirement in 1993.
Simon Ommanney

Clive Holland, Arctic historian and former archivist at the
Scott Polar Research Institute, died 15 September 2000, at
his home in Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire, at the age of 53.

Clive Anthony Holland was born 13 December 1946,
in Bramhall, Cheshire. He matriculated to Downing
College, Cambridge, where he read Modern and Medieval
Languages, with an emphasis on French and German.
Although he was naturally gifted in languages — later
adding Russian, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish to his
repertoire — it was while at Downing that he found his true
love — the history of exploration of the polar regions.
Once he read his first Arctic expedition account, he later
stated, he knew that he wanted to make that field his life's
work, and he went to his tutor to try to change to the History
Tripos. He was convinced by his tutor, however, to remain
officially in Modern and Medieval Languages, in which he
received his BA in 1968. Four years later he took his MA.

While at Downing, Holland represented his college in
cricket and rowing. Years later, he still would emphasise
to graduate students the advantages that could be gained by
participating in college sports, particularly promoting the
mental and physical health that came from all of those
early mornings at practice on the Cam.

In 1968 Holland began a long-term relationship with
SPRI, working with assistant librarian Alan Cooke on
compiling 'A chronological list of expeditions and events
in northern Canada,' a monumental reference work
published in 11 parts in Polar Record between 1970 and
1973. Holland's meticulousness was recognised with his
appointment in 1970 as library cataloguer. Then, in
January 1972, he became assistant librarian and curator of
the museum. Three years later, he added the position of
curator of manuscripts to his job description. Holland was
the ideal person to serve as curator of manuscripts: not

only did he know intimately everything in the Institute's
holdings, but he took great pride in providing service to
scholars visiting the archives, giving them valuable
information about hidden treasures in the Institute and
little-known works elsewhere. It was this unusual
combination of service and Holland's in-depth knowledge
of the history of the polar regions that made the Institute
archives one of the main focal points for researchers
around the world.

Holland's help to other researchers extended beyond
the physical limits of the SPRI archives. In 1978 he and
Cooke published The exploration of northern Canada, 500
to 1920: a chronology (Toronto: Arctic History Press), a
reference work further expanded from their earlier
chronological lists. For more than two decades this has
served as one of the essential tools of any serious Arctic
historian. In fact, little respect would accrue to any
historian of the Arctic who is not familiar with, and has not
at least attempted to purchase, 'Cooke and Holland,'
which sold out immediately and has long been one of the
most coveted prizes for any polar antiquarian book-
collector. Four years later, Holland published his
Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute,
Cambridge, England: a catalogue (New York: Garland),
which listed each manuscript in the holdings with an
outline of its contents. This is not only a crucial document
for use of the SPRI archives, it is invaluable for its
information about other archival collections throughout
the world.

When Harry King retired as librarian in 1984, Holland
served for half a year as acting librarian, until Valerie
Galpin was appointed to the position. He then continued
in his former role until a grant from the Leverhulme Trust
allowed him to work full-time on what proved to be his
magnum opus. This was ultimately published as Arctic
exploration and development c. 500 B.C. to 1915: an
encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 1994). This book is
arguably the most important reference work ever produced
for a historian of Arctic exploration. It extended the range
of 'Cooke and Holland' throughout the circumpolar Arctic,
although the latitude of the second book did not extend as
far south as the former. The book includes summaries of
each expedition to the Arctic, a vast bibliography of works
referring to those expeditions, an appendix of main
expedition members, some 30 pages of maps, and two
indexes, one general and one specifically of ships. It is a
remarkable tool that passes on to the modern scholar the
advantages not only of Holland's command of languages
— since much of the information had to be gained from
Russian, German, Norwegian, and other languages — but
of his exacting research skills. After completion of this
project, he received a two-year grant to extend this work to
1950. Unfortunately, this new encyclopaedia remained
incomplete at his death.

Shortly after he left the Scott Polar Research Institute,
Holland produced his major effort dealing with the
Antarctic, editing Sir Clements Markham's personal



372 OBITUARIES

narrative of Robert Falcon Scott's first expedition. This
was published as Antarctic obsession: a personal narrative
of the origins of the British National Antarctic Expedition
1901-1904 (Bluntisham: Bluntisham Books, 1986). As
well as numerous publications in Polar Record and The
dictionary of Canadian biography, he also edited a volume
of accounts of Arctic exploration, published as Farthest
north: the quest for the North Pole (London: Robinson,
1994).

For a number of years after his official departure from
SPRI, Holland continued his affiliation with it. He lectured
there regularly, supervised a number of students for the
MPhil degree, and generously gave of his knowledge. In
1991, I became his only student ever to receive a PhD.
Unfortunately, he later broke official relations with SPRI
— although he continued to give me feedback about Polar
Record — and withdrew to a great extent from the polar
community, disappointing and puzzling many of his friends
and colleagues. In his final years, he served as librarian for
Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Even today, there can be few serious historians of
Arctic exploration who have not been influenced or assisted
by Clive Holland. His chronological encyclopaedias will
make certain that this remains true of future generations of
historians as well.
Beau Riffenburgh

Raymond Lowry, PhD, PEng, one of the brightest lights
of the polar remote-sensing community in Canada, died of
cancer in Calgary, Alberta, on 28 November 2000, at the
age of 58.

Raymond Theodore Lowry was born on 20 May 1942
in Biggar, Saskatchewan, a small prairie town with a big
sign outside it, saying 'New York is big but this is Biggar.'
He went on to obtain a PhD in electrical engineering from
Imperial College, London, in 1971. He then joined the
Defence Research Establishment in Ottawa (DREO,
Remote Sensing Section), which at that time was carrying
out pioneer work on the nature and distribution of sea ice
in the Canadian Arctic. At DREO, Lowry worked with the
indomitable Moira Dunbar and took part in a number of
polar missions using the specially adapted Canadian Forces
Argus aircraft or 'SLARgus,' fitted with side-looking
airborne radar (SLAR) and a laser profilometer, and made
available for research.

Lowry moved on to the Canada Centre for Remote
Sensing (CCRS) (Applications Division) in 1975, where
he worked with the newly developed synthetic aperture
radar (S AR) fitted to a Convair 580 research aircraft, again
with an emphasis on snow and ice applications.

In 1978, as both the Canadian federal government and
industry became increasingly interested in new radar
technology, 'Uncle Ray'joined Intera Technologies Ltd in
Ottawa as senior staff consultant; he moved to Calgary in
1983 as senior radar engineer/scientist.

During his 16 years at Intera, he played a leading role
in the planning, development, support, and promotion of
Intera's STAR-1 and STAR-2 airborne SAR systems and

their uses for sea-ice monitoring and terrain applications.
Intera had the contract for supplying the system to carry
out ice-patrol missions for the Atmospheric Environment
Service across the Arctic. Fluently bilingual, Lowry
trained numerous radar engineers, software developers,
and applications specialists in the technical details of
radars. He had a wonderful knack for making this not only
interesting, but also fun.

Lowry wrote more than 50 papers and had a worldwide
network ofassociates and friends in the radarfield. In 1996
he joined the National Research Council in Calgary as an
industrial technology advisor (IRAP Program), specializing
in geomatics, and was instrumental in supporting new
geomatics ventures in Alberta. He was an active board
member of the Alberta Geomatics Group, a new industry
association, and vigorously supported geomatics education
at the University of Calgary and elsewhere.

In addition to his significant technical contributions in
the radar field, Lowry had a wide range of other interests,
which he pursued with passion. He had a love of music and
played jazz guitar with the Calgary Westwinds Musical
Society. A life-long athlete, he was a member of the
University of Calgary Triathlon Club. Lowry was a tireless
and passionate spokesman for the end of starvation and
absolute poverty, and was a founding partner of RESULTS
Canada. He was also a founder and dedicated leader of the
New Frontier men's team in Calgary. He had a genuine
interest in people, an irreverent sense of humour, and the
capacity to invent truly dreadful puns — all these will be
sadly missed by his family, friends, and the scientific
community at large.

My personal memories of Lowry begin in March 1973
at the icebound Canadian Forces base of Summerside,
Prince Edward Island, where we joined the SLARgus for
a transpolar laser profiling flight designed to cover the
same terrain as the British submarine Dreadnought had
profiled two years earlier, the aim being to match upper
and lower ice topography. The most dangerous part of this
mission was attending a Saturday night hop in the Lofoten
Islands at journey's end. In spring 1975 we again worked
together in the SLARgus from Inuvik, profiling over the
AIDJEX camp in the Beaufort Sea. Then followed two
larger pieces of co-operation that I shall always remember
fondly. In 1976 Lowry operated the SLARgus in an Arctic
Ocean mission, where it flew directly over a track being
profiled from below by HMS Sovereign, gaining the first
genuinely concurrent measurements of upper and lower
surface topography of sea ice. Lowry continued this
involvement in 1987, when he ran an Intera SAR mission
along the track of HMS Superb in the Arctic Ocean, again
permitting direct comparison of upper and lower ice
surfaces. These projects brought us together for many
friendly sessions of planning, fieldwork, and paper-writing
on the statistical properties of sea ice.

Lowry is survived by his wife, Sarah Rose, his children
Phoebe and Bevis by his first marriage to Vivien, and his
stepdaughters, Jenny and Rebecca Trew.
Peter Wadhams