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.

Courtauld was born at Bocking, Essex, the son of Samuel Augustine Courtauld (1833 – 1854) and grandson of George Courtauld (1802-1861). He was a cousin of British industrialist Samuel Courtauld the founder of the Courtauld Institute, and of Sydney Courtauld, who married the leading politician Rab Butler.

He was educated at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1926.

In 1926 he joined James Wordie's summer expedition to east Greenland as photographer. In 1927 Courtauld travelled with Francis and Peter Rodd to the Aïr Mountains in the southern Sahara. Courtauld attempted unsuccessfully to become a stockbroker but returned to Greenland in the summer of 1929 on another expedition with Wordie.

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 flyer 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.

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