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Conclusions
As an explorer, Wager had all the necessary ingredients for success. These include mental toughness and courage, meticulous planning, careful selection of the targets for investigation and ensuring their implementation, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of his colleagues and finally presenting the results of the investigations to the wider scientific community. Wager consistently satisfied all these criteria but most importantly, on the British East Greenland Expedition 1935-1936, he and his junior colleague, W.A. Deer, achieved results of landmark significance in igneous petrology.
As a mountaineer, Wager was indeed ‘highest up Everest before the war’. However, he was foiled in his attempt to climb Everest in 1933 by the second step, which he considered unclimbable, the unfavourable weather conditions for the time of year and his failure to use oxygen. Even Reinhold Messner, the hardest of the hard, was pushed to his absolute limits in climbing Everest without oxygen in 1978. Had he been climbing on the more favourable Nepal side of Everest in favourable weather conditions with oxygen, Wager’s chance of reaching the summit of Everest would undoubtedly have been much greater. Nonetheless, Wager was, without a doubt, one the select few top climbers in Britain at that time.
As a geologist, Wager had the supreme good fortune to discover the Skaergaard Intrusion in the first phase of his first expedition to East Greenland and to realize its significance immediately. His work on the Skaergaard was the dominant theme of the next 34 years of his life, and led to the publication of the classic work on the petrology of the Skaergaard Intrusion with W.A. Deer in 1939, and culminated in the publication of his book ‘Layered Igneous Rocks’ with his protégé, Malcolm Brown, published shortly after his death. Wager’s studies on the Skaergaard with his colleagues were of the first rank. Wager is also remembered as an excellent field geologist and teacher, as the man who revitalized the Oxford Geology Department after the war and as as a cofounder of two major international scientific journals. However, it is for his Skaergaard work that he is mostly remembered today.
Lawrence Wager was a very modest man. He went on his expeditions, did what was necessary and moved on. He was a dedicated man and not one to blow his own trumpet. However, based on the evidence presented here, I believe that Wager’s achievements in East Greenland and on Everest in the 1930s rank him in the top half dozen British explorers of the 20th century, alongside Scott, Shackleton, Fuchs and Fiennes. His classic work on the Skaergaard Intrusion has stood the test of time and remains highly regarded. Wager seemed to pack more into his life than anybody else. He was a very tenacious man with a shrewd scientific brain. He was totally dedicated in all he did and was an outstanding geologist.
Acknowledgements
I thank Professors K-H. Wedepohl and G. Wörner of the University of Göttingen for their helpful comments and support during the writing of this article.
Professor L. R. Wager: Major Awards and Honours
Page One: Introduction
Page Two : Wager the Explorer
Page Three : Returns to Greenland
Page Four: Geology and War Service
Page Five: Conclusions
References
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