Hattersley-Smith, Geoffrey, 1923-2012 : Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith was born in London, England on 23 April 1923. He attended Winchester College and then studied Geography at the University of Oxford. Hattersley-Smith left Oxford after one year to serve in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. After the war, he returned to Oxford, where he earned three degrees - BA 1948, MA 1951, and Dphil 1956.
From 1948 to 1950, Hattersley-Smith was the base leader for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (now the British Antarctic Survey) on King George Island. He immigrated to Canada in 1951 to join the Defence Research Board (DRB) in Ottawa. For the DRB, he initially carried out scientific studies of the Seward Glacier, on the Alaska-Yukon border, and on the Beaufort Sea. In 1953-54, he led a joint Canada-United States expedition to Ellesmere Island. He then took a leave of absence from the DRB to complete his doctorate at Oxford. From 1957 to 1961, he led Operation Hazen, the DRB's annual research expedition to Northern Ellesmere Island. Teams of scientists operating from base camps at Lake Hazen and approximately 65 kilometres farther north at Gilman Glacier studied glaciology, meteorology, geology, fauna, botany and archaeology and made extensive maps of the island. From 1963 to 1972, Hattersley-Smith led Operation Tanquary, the DRB's annual scientific study of oceanography based at Tanquary Fjord (also known as Greely Fjord), approximately 70 kilometres south of Lake Hazen.
Hattersley-Smith retired from the DRB in 1973 and returned to England where he rejoined the British Antarctic Survey, and served as the Secretary of the Antarctic Place-names Committee for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Hattersley-Smith was a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, which awarded him its Patron's Gold Medal in 1966. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and of the Arctic Institute of North America. He served as president of the Arctic Circle, the Arctic Club of Britain and the Antarctic Club. In 1984, Cape Hattersley-Smith in Antarctica was named after him, and in 2006 he was awarded the Polar Medal, with Arctic and Antarctic clasps. Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith died in England on 21 July 2012.
For further information see:
"Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith,' Daily Telegraph (30 July 2012)
Josh Wingrove, "Canada's Far North was the site of research and lifelong passion for adventurer," Globe and Mail (4 August 2012).
G. Hattersley-Smith, "Operation Hazen," in I. Norman Smith (ed.) Unbelievable Land: 29 Experts Bring Us Closer to the Arctic (Ottawa: Defence Research Board, 1964), pp. 119-124.
