Wordie, James

Person

Wordie, James

1889-1962

James Mann Wordie was born on the 26th April 1889, the son of John Wordie and Catherine Mann. He came up to St John’s in 1910 after taking his degree at the University of Glasgow, to study Natural Sciences.
During the First World War, Wordie joined the Royal Artillery and served in France. Upon returning to Cambridge, he was elected a Fellow of the college in 1921, and became a Tutor in 1923. In the same year, he also started a tenure as Junior Proctor of the University. Then, in 1933, Wordie was appointed Senior Tutor, before becoming President in 1950 and, finally, Master of the College in 1952.
Outside of his services for St John’s College, Wordie was a keen enthusiast of Polar exploration. In 1914, he was a geologist and chief of scientific staff on the Endurance expedition: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. The party’s boat became stranded in ice, and Wordie was marooned for some months on Elephant Island. However, this experience did not dent his enthusiasm, and Wordie remained involved in Polar exploration for the rest of his life. He was Chairman of the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge and president of the Royal Geographic Society. Wordie’s work afforded him many honours, including the Founders’ gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, the Daly medal of the American Geographical Society, and, in 1957, a knighthood.
In 1923, Wordie married Gertrude Henderson; together they had two daughters and three sons; all of their sons also attended St John’s College. Sir James Wordie died on the 16th January 1962, but his name lives on in the Wordie glacier in Greenland and the Wordie Crag in Spitzbergen; both are named for him.

Obituary in The Eagle: Vol. 59, Easter 1962, p.317