Reginald William James (9 January 18917 July 1964) was a British researcher and teacher of physics in England and South Africa. He is best known for his service in the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, for which he was awarded the Silver Polar Medal.

Early life

James was born on 9 January 1891 in London. After displaying adolescent skills as a maths prodigy, he was awarded a stipend to pursue studies in St. John's College, Cambridge.

Career

James signed on as an expedition physicist in the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Sir

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of A ...

, which departed England on the ''Endurance'' in August 1914; James had expected to winter over at the expedition's projected base on the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Mar ...

but the ice-beset expedition vessel never made Antarctic landfall and, with the rest of the ship's company, James found himself a castaway. His journal of life on a Weddell Sea ice floe and on Elephant Island survives. Upon the rescue of the men from Elephant Island in 1916, James found his country fighting

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. He joined the Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of captain and performing tasks relating to artillery spotting on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

. With the coming of peace, James turned to academia at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

. He was a lecturer in 1919, a senior lecturer in 1921, and a Reader in 1934. He specialised in problems of

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angle ...

. 1936–1937 saw a change in James' personal and professional life. In the first year he married Annie Watson, and in the second year he changed institutions to the University of Cape Town, which offered him the rank of professor. One of his MSc students there was Aaron Klug. His professional career reached culmination in 1953–1957 when he served as Vice-Chancellor of the university. He was elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

in 1955. James began the process of his retirement in 1958 and, beset by progressive cardiovascular disease, wound down his teaching duties over the following five years. He died in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

at age 73 on 7 July 1964, and was survived by three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Reginald 1891 births 1964 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition Recipients of the Polar Medal Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cape Town Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society