John Rymill

John Riddoch Rymill (13 March 1905 – 7 September 1968) was an Australian polar explorer, who had the rare second clasp added to his Polar Medal.

Rymill was born at Penola, South Australia, the second son of Robert Rymill (7 July 1869 – 14 May 1906) and Mary Edith Rymill (née Riddoch), owners of Penola Station, and grandson of Frank Rymill. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, where he first developed his love of polar literature, and at the Royal Geographical Society in London, where he studied surveying and navigation.

Rymill prepared himself for polar exploration with alpine experience in Europe, flying lessons at the de Havilland Aircraft Co. Ltd, Hendon and courses at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, under Professor Frank Debenham. In 1931 he was appointed to the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to Greenland (1930–31) as surveyor and pilot. He also joined the subsequent 1932-33 East Greenland Expedition led by Gino Watkins and which he led after Watkins' death in Tuttilik Fjord.

As a result of these Arctic experiences, Rymill determined to mount an Antarctic expedition to South Graham Land and the Weddell Sea south of Cape Horn, South America. After some difficulties securing sponsorship, he purchased an old sail training ship which he renamed Penola and with volunteer staff from Cambridge University and nine crew supplied by the Royal Navy, sailed to the South Atlantic, where their first base was South Georgia. His British Graham Land Expedition (1934–37) discovered a southern, permanently frozen channel, later named George VI Sound, extending to the Bellingshausen Sea.

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