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Noel Algernon Humphreys F/Mc Married Married Married Married: 1880 Gertrude Cobbold F/Mc | ||||||||
| Gordon Noel Humphreys [CFT #1965] Born: 1883 Died: 1966 |
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| b Surbiton, Surrey d Kingsbridge, Devon Dr. G Noel Humphreys who died yesterday, was best known perhaps as an explorer in Central Africa and the Arctic; he was also a botanist, an airman, a mountaineer and a surveyor, while in middle life he chose medicine as his profession. He was medical officer to the 1936 Everest expedition led by Hugh Ruttledge. Gordon Noel Humphreys was a son of Noel A Humphreys, Assistant Registrar General of England and Wales. From Epsom College he went up to Cambridge where he studied science. He had a keen desire to travel and took pains to equip himself as a trained observer. Under the instruction of E. A. Reeves he obtained the diploma of the Royal Geographical Society in surveying and cartography. His first expedition was to Mexico where he went in 1910, combining mountaineering with the collection of plants. He made an ascent of Pico Mayor, the highest peak of Popocatepetl. After returning to England in 1912 Humphreys was attracted to flying. He made flights in untested single-seater machines, and was soon an expert pilot. He was commissioned in the Royal Flying Corps (SR) in 1913, went to France in 1914, and at St. Omer modified a Lewis gun so that it could be fitted to an aircraft.. For his work he was mentioned in dispatches. In 1915 he was shot down and remained a prisoner of war until the end of hostilities. On his return in 1919 he was lent by the Air Ministry to the Geographical Section of the General Staff at the War Office. There he was employed in designing international aeronautic maps. He passed to the Reserve in 1925 and retired from the Army, with the rank of Captain, in 1927. Meanwhile Humphreys had gone out to Africa and was attached to the Land and Survey Department of the Uganda Protectorate as a junior staff surveyor. In 1926 he made two highly successful expeditions to Ruwenzori, climbing all the highest peaks and many others, and found unsuspected lakes and plants new to science. In 1931 he flew over Ruwenzori and in 1932 undertook no fewer than four expeditions to the same mountain range, during which he made use of photography from the air in proper combination with ground control. The result of all these expeditions was almost to complete the knowledge of the range north and south of the central massif. He also found one of the remote sources of the White Nile. Humphreys described in The Times some of his discoveries. For his work on Ruwenzori the Royal Geographical Society awarded him the Murchison Grant. In between his Ruwenzori expeditions Humphreys came home and studied at the Cambridge Medical School and at St. Mary's Hospital School, London. In 1931 he qualified as M.R.C.S., England, and L.R.C.P., London, and he set out to practise in London. However, adventure was in his blood, and in 1934-35 he led the Oxford University Ellesmere expedition. He married in 1934 Marion, only daughter of J. Bradshaw White, MD. They had two sons and a daughter. The Times, Obituary, 1966. |
1: 1935 Susan Bead Noel Humphreysc H/C 2: 1936 Bill Noel Humphreysc 3: 1939 Rock Noel Humphreysc W/C | |||||||
| 3 Children | ||||||||
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