Lawrence Wager
Encyclopedia
Lawrence Rickard Wager, commonly known as Bill Wager, (5 February 1904 – 20 November 1965) was a British
geologist
, explorer and mountaineer
, described as "one of the finest geological thinkers of his generation" and best remembered for his work on the Skaergaard intrusion
in Greenland
, and for his attempt on Mount Everest
in 1933.
, Yorkshire
, Wager attended Leeds Grammar School
and later Pembroke College, Cambridge
, where he gained a first class degree in geology in 1926. While at Cambridge, he developed an interest in climbing
, spending a number of holidays in the Wales
, Scotland
and the Alps
, and serving as president of the university's mountaineering club. After three years of further research at Cambridge, he was appointed a lecturer in the geology department at the University of Reading
.
. Early in the expedition, Wager identified and named the Skaergaard intrusion
at the mouth of the Kangerdlugssuaq Fjord and immediately realised its significance, a realisation which has been called "a stroke of genius". The expedition (which continued over the winter) also proved his mettle as an explorer; at one point the relief of a station required him to undertake a 125-mile sledge journey to the highest point on the ice-cap in atrocious conditions – an endeavour which took 39 days. Wager also made an attempt to climb Mount Forel, at the time the highest known peak in the Arctic at 11,500 ft. The party turned back 500 ft below the summit, but had still made the highest climb in the Arctic to date.
The research carried out in Greenland would form the basis of Wager's subsequent career, and he made a further three visits there in the 1930s, playing an increased role in leading and organising the expeditions. The aim was to map the Skaergaard Intrusion in detail, and as much of the surrounding area as possible. A total of 35,000 km2 of difficult terrain was mapped, and the results of his explorations were published in four volumes of Meddelelser om Grønland. The work on the Skaergaard Intrusion has been described as possibly "the most significant single contribution yet made to the science of petrology
".
led a British expedition to the north side of Mount Everest
, the first since the 1924 expedition on which Mallory
and Irvine
had disappeared. The team assembled included Percy Wyn-Harris
, who had known Wager at Cambridge, and when Noel Odell
was forced to drop out for business reasons, Wager was selected as a late replacement. On 30 May, Wager and Wyn-Harris made the team's first attempt on the summit. They followed the traverse route below the mountain's northeast ridge, as pioneered by Norton
in 1924, rather than the ridge itself. They reached approximately the height Norton had gained (28,200 ft) before turning back due to poor snow conditions and the lateness of the hour. In doing so, they equalled the highest point reached in mountaineering
at the time, and set an altitude record for climbing without supplemental oxygen
which would not be bettered until Messner
and Habeler
reached the summit of Everest in 1978.
in the photographic interpretation section. He was commissioned as a pilot officer
on 12 August 1940, and promoted to flying officer
a year later. In 1942 he braved the notorious Murmansk Run as part of a small reconnaissance team attempting to track down the German battleship Tirpitz
. Wager was Mentioned in Despatches for his work. He was promoted to temporary flight lieutenant
on 1 September 1942, and the rank was made substantive on 11 February 1943. He resigned his commission on 1 July 1944.
In 1944 Wager was appointed to the chair of geology at the University of Durham, and after being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society two years later, moved to Oxford
in 1950 as Professor of Geology (along with a fellowship at University College, Oxford
). There he helped to modernise what had been a failing department. He made a further expedition to Greenland in 1953, but in 1955 a heart attack
put an end to his career as an active mountaineer and explorer. His academic work was unaffected however, and he became active in the fields of geological age determination and isotope geochemistry
. He was also a key driving force in the founding of two geological journals - Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
in 1950 and Journal of Petrology in 1960. In 1965 he died suddenly as a result of a second heart attack. His book Layered Igneous Rocks, written with his protégé Malcolm Brown
, was published posthumously in 1968, and became a standard text. The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior
awards the Wager Medal in his honour.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
geologist
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, explorer and mountaineer
Mountaineering
Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...
, described as "one of the finest geological thinkers of his generation" and best remembered for his work on the Skaergaard intrusion
Skaergaard intrusion
The Skaergaard intrusion is a layered igneous intrusion in East Greenland. It comprises various rock types including gabbro, ferro diorite, anorthosite and granophyre.Discovered by Lawrence Wager...
in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, and for his attempt on Mount Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
in 1933.
Early career
Born in BatleyBatley
Batley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies southeast of Bradford, southwest of Leeds and north of Dewsbury, near the M62 motorway. It has a population of 49,448 . Other nearby towns include Morley to the northeast, Ossett to the southeast...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, Wager attended Leeds Grammar School
Leeds Grammar School
Leeds Grammar School was an independent school in Leeds established in 1552. In August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physically united in September 2008....
and later Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, where he gained a first class degree in geology in 1926. While at Cambridge, he developed an interest in climbing
Climbing
Climbing is the activity of using one's hands and feet to ascend a steep object. It is done both for recreation and professionally, as part of activities such as maintenance of a structure, or military operations.Climbing activities include:* Bouldering: Ascending boulders or small...
, spending a number of holidays in the Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, and serving as president of the university's mountaineering club. After three years of further research at Cambridge, he was appointed a lecturer in the geology department at the University of Reading
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...
.
Greenland
In 1930, Wager made his first trip to eastern Greenland with the British Arctic air route expedition led by Gino WatkinsGino Watkins
Henry George "Gino" Watkins FRGS was a British Arctic explorer.Born in London, he was educated at Lancing College and acquired a love of mountaineering and the outdoors from his father through holidays in the Alps, the Tyrol and the English Lake District...
. Early in the expedition, Wager identified and named the Skaergaard intrusion
Skaergaard intrusion
The Skaergaard intrusion is a layered igneous intrusion in East Greenland. It comprises various rock types including gabbro, ferro diorite, anorthosite and granophyre.Discovered by Lawrence Wager...
at the mouth of the Kangerdlugssuaq Fjord and immediately realised its significance, a realisation which has been called "a stroke of genius". The expedition (which continued over the winter) also proved his mettle as an explorer; at one point the relief of a station required him to undertake a 125-mile sledge journey to the highest point on the ice-cap in atrocious conditions – an endeavour which took 39 days. Wager also made an attempt to climb Mount Forel, at the time the highest known peak in the Arctic at 11,500 ft. The party turned back 500 ft below the summit, but had still made the highest climb in the Arctic to date.
The research carried out in Greenland would form the basis of Wager's subsequent career, and he made a further three visits there in the 1930s, playing an increased role in leading and organising the expeditions. The aim was to map the Skaergaard Intrusion in detail, and as much of the surrounding area as possible. A total of 35,000 km2 of difficult terrain was mapped, and the results of his explorations were published in four volumes of Meddelelser om Grønland. The work on the Skaergaard Intrusion has been described as possibly "the most significant single contribution yet made to the science of petrology
Petrology
Petrology is the branch of geology that studies rocks, and the conditions in which rocks form....
".
Everest
In 1933 Hugh RuttledgeHugh Ruttledge
Hugh Ruttledge was an English civil servant and mountaineer who was the leader of two expeditions to Mount Everest in 1933 and 1936.-Early life:...
led a British expedition to the north side of Mount Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
, the first since the 1924 expedition on which Mallory
George Mallory
George Herbert Leigh Mallory was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s....
and Irvine
Andrew Irvine (mountaineer)
Andrew "Sandy" Comyn Irvine was an English mountaineer who took part in 1924 British Everest Expedition, the third British expedition to the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest....
had disappeared. The team assembled included Percy Wyn-Harris
Percy Wyn-Harris
Sir Percy Wyn-Harris, KCMG, MBE, KStJ was an English mountaineer, political administrator, and yachtsman...
, who had known Wager at Cambridge, and when Noel Odell
Noel Odell
Noel Ewart Odell was an English geologist and mountaineer. Educated at Brighton College and the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, in 1924 he was an oxygen officer on the Everest expedition in which George Mallory and Andrew Irvine famously perished during their summit attempt...
was forced to drop out for business reasons, Wager was selected as a late replacement. On 30 May, Wager and Wyn-Harris made the team's first attempt on the summit. They followed the traverse route below the mountain's northeast ridge, as pioneered by Norton
Edward Felix Norton
Edward Felix Norton DSO MC was a British army officer and mountaineer.He was educated at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and then joined artillery units in India and served in World War I. He had been introduced to mountain climbing at the home in the Alps of his...
in 1924, rather than the ridge itself. They reached approximately the height Norton had gained (28,200 ft) before turning back due to poor snow conditions and the lateness of the hour. In doing so, they equalled the highest point reached in mountaineering
World altitude record (mountaineering)
In the history of mountaineering, the world altitude record referred to the highest point on the Earth's surface which had been reached, regardless of whether that point was an actual summit. The world summit record referred to the highest mountain to have been successfully climbed...
at the time, and set an altitude record for climbing without supplemental oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
which would not be bettered until Messner
Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...
and Habeler
Peter Habeler
Peter Habeler is an Austrian mountaineer. He was born in Mayrhofen, Austria.Among his accomplishments as a mountaineer are his first ascents in the Rocky Mountains. He was also the first European to climb on the Big Walls in Yosemite National Park.He began climbing with Reinhold Messner in 1969. ...
reached the summit of Everest in 1978.
Wartime service and post-war career
During the Second World War, Wager worked for the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in the photographic interpretation section. He was commissioned as a pilot officer
Pilot Officer
Pilot officer is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer...
on 12 August 1940, and promoted to flying officer
Flying Officer
Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...
a year later. In 1942 he braved the notorious Murmansk Run as part of a small reconnaissance team attempting to track down the German battleship Tirpitz
German battleship Tirpitz
Tirpitz was the second of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Imperial Navy, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and launched two and a half years later in April...
. Wager was Mentioned in Despatches for his work. He was promoted to temporary flight lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
on 1 September 1942, and the rank was made substantive on 11 February 1943. He resigned his commission on 1 July 1944.
In 1944 Wager was appointed to the chair of geology at the University of Durham, and after being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society two years later, moved to Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
in 1950 as Professor of Geology (along with a fellowship at University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
). There he helped to modernise what had been a failing department. He made a further expedition to Greenland in 1953, but in 1955 a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
put an end to his career as an active mountaineer and explorer. His academic work was unaffected however, and he became active in the fields of geological age determination and isotope geochemistry
Isotope geochemistry
Isotope geochemistry is an aspect of geology based upon study of the relative and absolute concentrations of the elements and their isotopes in the Earth. Variations in the abundance of these isotopes, typically measured with an isotope ratio mass spectrometer or an accelerator mass spectrometer,...
. He was also a key driving force in the founding of two geological journals - Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta or GCA, established in 1950, is a semi-monthly, peer reviewed, scientific journal published by Elsevier. It is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and the Meteoritical Society. The current Executive editor, since the year 2000, is Frank Podosek...
in 1950 and Journal of Petrology in 1960. In 1965 he died suddenly as a result of a second heart attack. His book Layered Igneous Rocks, written with his protégé Malcolm Brown
George Malcolm Brown
Sir George Malcolm Brown, FRS was one of the most respected geologists of the second half of the Twentieth century...
, was published posthumously in 1968, and became a standard text. The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior
International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior
The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, or IAVCEI, is an association that represents the primary international focus for research in volcanology, efforts to mitigate volcanic disasters, and research into closely related disciplines, such as igneous...
awards the Wager Medal in his honour.
External links
- http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/wager.pdf
- http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/Units/97.html
- L. R. Wager: Explorer, Mountaineer, Geologist The Geochemical Society