Brown, R. N. Rudmose (Robert Neal Rudmose), 1879-1957

Robert Neal Rudmose Brown was born in London in 1879. His father, Dr Robert Brown of Campster, was responsible for the geography section in the collection of 'Arctic Papers' prepared by the Royal Geographical Society for the expedition of 1875-1876 (leader George Strong Nares). Rudmose Brown was educated at Dulwich College and read natural sciences at Aberdeen University. From 1900 to 1902, he was assistant professor of botany at University College, Dundee.

After making the acquaintance of William Speirs Bruce he joined the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902-1904 (led by Bruce) as botanist. Wintering in Scotia at Laurie Island, South Orkney Islands, he made extensive biological collections.

On returning home, he became assistant to Bruce in the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in Edinburgh between 1904 and 1905, and was appointed vice-president of the International Polar Congress in 1906. As a lecturer in geography at Sheffield University, he spent several seasons as a field botanist in Svalbard. He worked there over a long period of years, and on most of these occasions was consultant to the Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate.

During the First World War he worked in the Intelligence Department of the Naval Staff in London and was largely responsible for Arctic information. This was followed up when he became a member of the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War. He collaborated in the compilation of Spitsbergen information and this, and his previous work, was recognised by his being made Commander of the Order of St Olav by the Norwegian Government.

From 1920 to 1922, Rudmose Brown was reader in geography at Manchester and in 1931, he was appointed professor of geography at Sheffield University. He was made president of the Institute of British Geographers between 1937 and 1938. On his retirement in 1945, he was made emeritus professor at Sheffield University. He died in Sheffield on 27 January 1957, bequeathing his polar library to the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England.

Published work, The voyage of the Scotia, being the record of a voyage of exploration in Antarctic Seas C. Hurst, London (1978) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(08)[1902-1904 Bruce] and The polar regions, a physical and economic geography of the Arctic and Antarctic Methuen, London (1927) SPRI Library Shelf (2)[pub 1927] and A naturalist at the Poles. The life, work and voyages of Dr. W.S. Bruce, the polar explorer Seeley, Service & Co. London (1923) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Bruce, W.S.]

From the guide to the Robert Neal Rudmose Brown collection, 1902 - 1950, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)

The collection consists of letters, together with some ephemera, formerly in the possession of R. N. Rudmose Brown. The letters are mainly written to Rudmose Brown by others, including fellow Polar scientists and explorers, about his books on Polar exploration: A Naturalist at the Poles: the Life, Work & Voyages of Dr. W.S. Bruce the Polar Explorer (1923), and The Polar Regions (1927), and related matters, though one letter by himself - to the Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen whom he invited to write a foreword for his life of Bruce - together with the reply by Nansen, declining the invitation - is also in the collection.

Robert Neal Rudmose Brown (1879-1957), Professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield from 1931 to 1945, and an authority on Polar studies, was born in London, 13th September 1879, and educated at Dulwich College, Aberdeen University and Montpellier University. He took pride in his Aberdonian and Scandinavian parentage, 'Rudmose' being his mother's maiden name. His university training was in biology at Aberdeen (1896-1900), folowing which he found a post as assistant to the Professor of Botany at University College, Dundee, Patrick Geddes, from 1900-1902. However, in 1902 he sailed as naturalist on board the converted Norwegian whaler 'Scotia' with the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-4), led by William Speirs Bruce, which surveyed in extreme conditions the unexplored Antarctic seas, for which work he was awarded the medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. An account of this expedition, The Voyage of the Scotia, was written by three members of the expedition, including Rudmose Brown, and published in 1906. In 1904 he was appointed assistant at Bruce's Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in Edinburgh, and in 1906 visited Burma to report to the Indian Government on the pearl oyster fisheries of the Mergui Archipelago. In 1907 he was elected Vice-President of the International Polar Congress; in 1909 he was awarded a doctorate by Aberdeen University.

In 1908 he was appointed the first head of the new Department of Geography at Sheffield University, which he served for 37 years, in 1924 establishing there an Honours course in Geography, retiring in 1945 as Emeritus Professor.

During his time at Sheffield he was involved in many other activities. In 1909 he served as surveyor and naturalist on Bruce's Scottish Arctic expedition to Spitsbergen, making other visits to the area in later years, and received in 1919 the Cuthbert Peek Grant of the Royal Geographical Society for this work. During the First World War he was seconded to the Admiralty Intelligence Division, some of this work continuing during the Second World War, for which service he was awarded the Insignia of the Commander of the Order of St. Olav by King Haakon of Norway. Having been in 1932 elected President of the Antarctic Club, he was elected in 1949 President of the Arctic Club.

Rudmose Brown published many books and papers on Polar geography, though his textbook on Economic Geography, published in 1923, also became a standard reference work. His scholarship brought him wide academic recognition: President of Section E of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1927, a member of its Council 1933-1938; President of the Institute of British Geographers 1938 and 1939; member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society 1925-1928 and 1945-1946.

He died in Sheffield on the 27th of January 1957.

[Notes based on the obituary by A. Garnett, University of Sheffield Gazette, No. 28, March 1957, and appreciation by T.W. Freeman, Geographers Bibliographical Studies, Vol. 8, 1984]

From the guide to the Rudmose Brown Collection, 1922-1937, (University of Sheffield Library)