John Grierson was born in 1909. He was educated at Charterhouse where he took his first flying lessons before entering RAF Cranwell in 1929. In 1930, he was posted to India, making a record solo return flight to England the following year in a Gypsy Moth. In 1934, Grierson succeeded on his third attempt in making the first solo flight over the Greenland ice sheet to Ottawa in a Fox Moth seaplane. In 1939, he joined Hawker Siddeley where he served as the test pilot chiefly concerned with the flight development of Frank Whittle's jet engine in the Gloster E28 aircraft, later to become the Meteor.
In 1946, with two Walrus seaplanes, he joined a Salvesen whaling factory ship to explore the use of aerial survey in the Antarctic. Between 1950 and 1962, Grierson was employed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company, later revisiting the Arctic and Antarctic with the US Air Force. Retiring to Guernsey in 1964, he died on 21 May 1977. He was the author of several books.
Published work Heroes of the polar skies by John Grierson, Heinemann London (1967) SPRI Library Shelf 656.7(091) Sir Hubert Wilkins, enigma of exploration by John Grierson, Robert Hale London (1960) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Wilkins, G.H.] Air whaler by John Grierson, Sampson Low, Marston & Co. London (1949) SPRI Library Shelf 639.245.1:(7) Challenge to the poles; highlights of Arctic and Antarctic aviation by John Grierson, G.T. Foulis & Col. Ltd. London (1964) SPRI Library Shelf 656.7(091) High failure:= solo along the Arctic air route by John Grierson, William Hodge London (1936) SPRI Library Shelf (3)91(08)[1933-1934 Grierson]
From the guide to the John Grierson collection, 1966, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
