Augustine Courtauld
Augustine Courtauld (26 August 1904 – 3 March 1959), often called August Courtauld, was a yachtsman and British Arctic explorer, best known for serving as the solo meteorologist of a winter observation post, Icecap Station, located in the interior of Greenland in 1930-1931. He was a cousin of British industrialist Samuel Courtauld the founder of the Courtauld Institute.[1][2] He was also cousin to Sydney Courtauld, who married the leading politician Rab Butler.
Contents
British Arctic Air Route Expedition
During the pioneer powered flights over the Atlantic Ocean in the 1920s, it was already clear that an all-ocean route was suboptimal, especially when flying from east to west. The Great Circle routes from much of Europe to much of North America approach or pass over the island of Greenland, and strong jet stream winds are a further incentive to the westbound flier to take a northern route. During the 1920s, however, little was known of climatic conditions on the coastline of Greenland, and almost literally nothing was known of the weather in the interior of Greenland during the polar winter. The Gino Watkins-led expedition of 1930-1931, the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, was intended to gather data aimed at solving these puzzles.[1]
Augustine Courtauld, a young City stockbroker and graduate of Cambridge University, joined the Watkins/BAARE expedition and volunteered to conduct meteorological observations at Icecap Station, a purpose-built post atop the Greenland ice cap, 8,600 feet (2,600 m) above sea level and 112 miles (180 km) west of the expedition's main base. Courtauld volunteered and served as a solo observer at this post for a five-month tour of duty during the height of the 1930-1931 winter. Watkins and other expedition members relieved him on 5 May 1931, just as Courtauld's food and fuel were running out.[1]
Upon his return to England, Courtauld was awarded the Polar Medal.
Climbing Gunnbjorn Fjeld
Courtauld was a member of the party to make the first ascent of Gunnbjørn Fjeld (3963m), the highest mountain in the Arctic in 1935.
Personal life
Courtauld married Mollie Montgomerie in 1932.[1] The couple raised six children at their seat, Spencers, in Great Yeldham, Essex. In later life Courtauld turned to what had become his first love, yachting: Mollie was to later recall that "life with August was to consist largely of life at sea." In 1953, Augustine Courtauld served as High Sheriff of Essex for the year, an appointment also once held by his uncle William Courtauld, the later baronet. In this same year, however, he became ill with multiple sclerosis, and it was as a result of complications from this illness that Augustine Courtauld was to succumb in March 1959.
His cousin Sydney Courtauld, Mrs. Richard Butler, also died during this period, in 1954.
The widowed Mrs. Courtauld was to re-marry in September 1959 and enjoyed a second marriage as long and rewarding as her first. Her second husband was the Conservative Home Secretary Rab Butler, who was, of course himself also recently widowed having married August's cousin Sydney Courtauld. Richard Butler, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and now Home Secretary, would go on to become Foreign Secretary and was also being spoken of, in several circles around this time, as 'the next Prime Minister'. The intensity of this political life at the time was no doubt a help for both of the newly-weds. The couple lived in a number of homes, including Gatcombe Park which had been a Courtauld residence before it was sold to the British Royal family, before eventually making the unusual decision to buy back Spencers, the house where Mollie had lived during her first marriage, for their home. The couple were married for more than two decades, until Richard, Lord Butler of Saffron Walden died, in 1982. Lady Butler, the former Mrs. Mollie Courtauld, died on 18 February 2009 at the remarkable age of 101.[3]
Memory
On 28 May 2011 a joint British-Russian team of alpinists climbed a previously unconquered peak (~3150m), de facto the last remaining unclimbed summit in the vicinity of Gunnbjorn Fjeld in the Watkins Range in Greenland. By mutual consent the party decided to name the peak Mount Augustine Courtauld, often called simply Mount Augustine for brevity, in memory of him.[4][5]
References
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