Tryggve Gran was born in Bergen, Norway on 20 January 1889. He entered the Norwegian naval Cadet College straight from school, but left before completing his training.
In 1910 Gran was introduced to Captain Robert Falcon Scott in Norway and volunteered to join the forthcoming British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913 (led by Scott), as ski instructor. From November 1911 to February 1912 during the absence of the polar party, Gran accompanied the geological expedition to the western mountains led by Griffith Taylor. In November 1912 Gran was a member of the search party with Charles Wright that discovered Scott's tent 11 miles from One Ton Depot. His final adventure before leaving Antarctica was an ascent of Mount Erebus with Raymond Priestley and Frederick Hooper in December 1912, an occasion which nearly ended in disaster when an unexpected eruption caused a shower of huge pumice blocks to fall around him.
On return to Norway he became an aviator, and in the First World War flew with the Royal Flying Corps, commanding RAF units in north Russia during the allied intervention. In 1928 he led the Arctic search for Roald Amundsen, lost flying while trying to discover the fate of Nobile's North Pole expedition on board the airship Italia . He retired from the Norwegian Air Force with the rank of major and his latter years were spent in writing and lecturing on Scott's last expedition. He died in Norway on 8 January 1980.
Published works, Mitt liv mellom himmel og jord (Norwegian) by Tryggve Gran, Ernst G.Mortensens Forlag Oslo (1979) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Gran, T.] Fra tjuagutt til sydpolfarer (Norwegian) by Tryggve Gran, Ernst G.Mortensens Forlag Oslo (1974) SPRIL Library Shelf 92[Gran, T.]
From the guide to the Tryggve Gran collection, 1912-1913, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
