Davis, John King (1884 - 1967)

Summary

John Davis was an experienced and highly-regarded Antarctic explorer and skilled ice navigator. He was Chief Officer on Nimrod during Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of 1907 to 1909. During the Australasian Antarctic Expedition he made five cruises as second-in-command of the Expedition and Master of Aurora, establishing and relieving the wintering bases on Macquarie Island, at Cape Denison, Adelie Land (main base), and the Shackleton Ice Shelf, Queen Mary Land (Western Base). In addition he conducted a program of depth soundings between Tasmania and the Antarctic continent, discovered the South Tasman Rise, and established a meteorological station on Macquarie Island. He was Captain of Discovery during the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition of 1929 to 1930. Davis has a long-standing involvement in the Australian Government's planning committee for Antarctic policy as Commonwealth Director of Navigation between 1920 and 1949. The Davis Sea in Antarctica was named in his honour.

Details

Chronology

1905

Education - Certified as Second Mate, Board of Trade, United Kingdom

1906

Education - First Mate's Certificate, Sydney

1908

Education - Extra mate's certificate, New Zealand

1908 - 1909

Career position - Chief Officer, Nimrod

1909

Award - Polar Medal (Bronze clasp)

1911 - 1914

Career position - Second-in-Command and Master, S.Y. Aurora, Australasian Antarctic Expedition

1914

Career position - Vice President, Section E (Geography), British Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting

1915

Award - Polar Medal (Silver clasp)

1915

Award - Murchison Award, Royal Geographical Society

1915 - 1967

Award - Fellow, Royal Geographical Society

1916 - 1917

Career position - Commander, Ross Sea Relief Expedition

1917

Award - Polar Medal (Bronze clasp)

1920 - 1949

Career position - Commonwealth Director of Navigation

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Geography), Australian National Research Council

1924

Career position - President, Section E (Geography and History), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1929 - 1930

Career position - Captain of Discovery, British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition

1934

Award - Polar Medal (Bronze clasp)

1945 - 1946

Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria

1949

Life event - Retired

1965

Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• John King Davis - Records, 1884 - 1959, ML MSS 626; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• John King Davis - Records, 1884 - 1967, MS 8311/67; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Davis, J. K., With the Aurora in the Antarctic, 1911 - 1914 (London: Andrew Melrose, 1919), 183 pp. Details
• Davis, J. K., High latitude ([Parkville, Vic.]: Melbourne University Press, 1962), 292 pp. Details
• Davis, John King: edited by Crossley, Louise, Trial by ice: the Antarctic journals of John King Davis ( Bluntisham, Huntingdon: Norwich, Norfolk: Bluntisham Books: Erskine Press, 1919), 195 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Bechervaise, John, 'Davis, John King (1884-1967), Antarctic navigator' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 238-239. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080262b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Davis, J. K., 'The soundings of the Antarctic ship Aurora between Tasmania and the Antarctic continent 1912', Geographical Journal, 42 (4) (1913), 361-2. Details
• Lucas, Anna, Kriwoken, Lorne and Leane, Elizabeth, 'Captain John King Davis on F.I.S. Endeavour: Preparing for Oceanographic Work in the Southern Ocean', Polar Record, 47 (2011), 356-70. Details

Newspaper Articles

• 'Medal Awards - For Antarctic Research Expedition', The Canberra Times (1934), 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2350520. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2603652. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/25444637. Details
• 'Davis, John King (1884-1967)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1462048. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_d.html. Details
• Chester, Jonathan, Going to extremes: Project Blizzard and Australia's Antarctic heritage (Sydney: Auckland: Doubleday Australia, 1986), 308 pp. Details
• Dartnall, H. J. G., 'Antarctic vignettes VII: unsung heroes - researching the crew of the S.Y. Aurora 1911 - 1914', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 148 (2014), 11-5. https://doi.org/10.26749/rstpp.148.11. Details
• Day, David, Weather watchers: 100 years of the Bureau of Meteorology (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2007), 530 pp. Details
• Jensen, David, Mawson's remarkable men: the personal stories of the epic 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expediton (Sydeny: Allen and Unwin, 2015), 183 pp. Details
• Mawer, Granville Allen, South by Northwest: the Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica (Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2006), 319 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, The home of the blizzard: being the story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911 - 1914, 2 vols (London: J.B. Lippincott: Heinemann, 1915). Details
• Quilty, P. G.; and Goddard, P. H., 'The lower deck on Aurora H. V. Goddard's diary, 1913-14', Polar record, 40 (3) (2004), 193-203. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003224740300336X. Details
• Rice, A. L., British oceanographic vessels 1800 - 1950 (London: Ray Society, 1986), 193 pp. Details