John Mathieson (1855,

Durness Durness ( gd, Diùranais) is a village and civil parish in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It lies on the north coast of the country in the traditional county of Sutherland, around north of Inverness. The area is remote, and the parish is ...

, Sutherland – 14 June 1945, Edinburgh) was a Scottish surveyor, cartographer, explorer and Gaelic scholar. In 1909, Mathieson retired from his post as Division Superintendent of HM Ordnance Survey in order to serve as chief surveyor on the Scottish scientific expedition to Svalbard, led by

William Speirs Bruce William Speirs Bruce (1 August 1867 – 28 October 1921) was a British naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer who organized and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (SNAE, 1902–04) to the South Orkney Islands and the Wedd ...

. In 1920-21 he led the surveying party on

Prins Karls Forland Prins Karls Forland or Forlandet, occasionally anglicized as Prince Charles Foreland, is an island off the west coast of Oscar II Land on Spitsbergen in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. The entire island and the surrounding sea area c ...

, largely completing Bruce's survey. On 7 March 1921 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, upon the nomination of

John Horne John Horne PRSE FRS FRSE FEGS LLD (1 January 1848 – 30 May 1928) was a Scottish geologist. He served as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1915 to 1919. Life Horne was born on 1 January 1848, in Campsie, Stirlingshire, the ...

, John Flett,

Thomas Jehu Thomas John Jehu (19 February 1871 – 18 July 1943) was a British physician and geologist. The Jehu-Campbell Fossil Collection at the University of Edinburgh was donated by Jehu in combination with Robert Campbell and is now the main component ...

Ben Peach Benjamin Neeve Peach (6 September 1842 – 29 January 1926) was a British geologist. Life Peach was born at Gorran Haven in Cornwall on 6 September 1842 to Jemima Mabson and Charles William Peach, an amateur British naturalist and geologist ...

, Robert Campbell and Thomas Cuthbert Day. In 1927 he was awarded the

Gold Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society The Scottish Geographical Medal is the highest accolade of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) is an educational charity based in Perth, Scotland founded in 1884. The purpose of the society i ...

and the

Murchison Grant The Murchison Award, also referred to as the Murchison Grant, was first given by the Royal Geographical Society in 1882 for publications judged to have contributed most to geographical science in preceding recent years. Recipients Source (1882– ...

by the Royal Geographical Society.

Works

* *"General Wade and His Military Roads in the Highlands of Scotland", Scottish Geographical Magazine, Volume 40, 1924 * * *"St Kilda", Scottish Geographical Magazine, Volume 44, December 1928 * *"The Story of Antarctic Exploration 1716-1931", 1932 *"The Story of Arctic Voyages and Explorations", 1934 *"The Tragedy of the Scottish Highlands", Scottish Geographical Magazine, Volume 54, 1938 * *"Scottish Ghost-names and other place names: Some of the Difficulties in ascertaining their Meaning", Scottish Geographical Magazine, Volume 60, 1944 *

References

External links

Map of St Kilda
1855 births 1945 deaths 20th-century explorers People from Sutherland Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish geographers Scottish surveyors Scottish cartographers Scottish polar explorers Explorers of Svalbard 20th-century Scottish historians Historians of Scotland Toponymists {{UK-explorer-stub