Harold (Harry) Godfrey Rudolf King was born in 1921. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force as a radio mechanic and an educational and vocational training instructor. By 1949, he had completed a degree in history at University College, London. Following training with the Library Association, he worked in the libraries of London University, the Institute of Historical Research and the Manchester Guardian before becoming librarian of the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in 1955.
In 1959, his position as head of the library became a University of Cambridge post with dual responsibility for overseeing the library and information centre. In 1976, he helped to set up the Skellerup Antarctic Library at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. He co-edited SPRI's nineteen-volume library catalogue, published in 1976, and has edited numerous publications, including The Antarctic diary of Victor Campbell, South Pole Odyssey and The Arctic, a guide to literature of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic . He retired from SPRI in 1983.
Published work, The wicked mate, the Antarctic diary of Victor Campbell edited by Harold Godfrey Rudolf King, Bluntisham Books and Erskine Press, Aldburgh, Norfolk (1988) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(08)[1910-1913], The Arctic edited by Harold Godfrey Rudolf King, Clio Press Ltd. Oxford (1989) SPRI Library Shelf 01(3), The Antarctic edited by Janice Meadows, William James Mills and Harold Godfrey Rudolf King, Clio Press, Oxford (1994) Shelf 01(7), South Pole Odyssey, selections from the Antarctic diaries of Edward Wilson edited by Harold Godfrey Rudolf King, Blandford Press Poole, Rigby Publishers Ltd. Adelaide (1982) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Wilson, E.A.], Polar pundit, reminiscences about Brian Birley Roberts, edited by Harold Godfrey Rudolf King and Ann Margaret Savours, Polar Publications Scott Polar Research Institute Cambridge (1995) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Roberts, B.], The Antarctic by Harold Godfrey Rudolf King, Blandford Press, London (1969) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(091)
From the guide to the Harold King collection, 1964-1992, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
