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Harry G.R. King (30 August 1921 - 4 July 2013)

Harry G.R. King (30 August 1921 - 4 July 2013)

It is with great sadness that the Scott Polar Research Institute announces the death of Emeritus Associate Harry King, Librarian at SPRI from 1955 until his retirement in 1983.

Harold (Harry) Godfrey Rudolf King was born on 30 August 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 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.

Harry co-edited SPRI's nineteen-volume library catalogue, published in 1976, and edited numerous publications, including the Antarctic diary of Victor Campbell, South Pole Odyssey and The Arctic, an authoritative guide to the literature of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic.

The funeral service will be held at the West Chapel, Cambridge Crematorium, on Thursday, 18 July at 12 noon. The family have asked that donations made in Harry's memory are given to the SPRI Archival Acquisitions Fund. Gifts to the Fund may be made online.

Heather Lane
Librarian & Keeper