John David Booth
John David Booth ( -1961)
1961 Obituary [1]
JOHN DAVID BOOTH, aged 24, JOHN ROBERTSON FRASER, aged 25, and PETER SMITH, aged 23, Students of the Institution, lost their lives on 25 June, 1961, while taking part in a glaciological and geological survey expedition to Jan Mayen Island, organized by Imperial College and Birkbeck College, London......
The accident occurred when a party of six men were returning in a small boat to the main base camp after they had been working for a week on the Sorbreen, a large glacier on the southern flank of the Beerenberg, where they had been very successful in their work. A sudden disturbance of the sea, probably caused by the calving of an iceberg from the glacier, capsized the boat. Only one of the occupants managed to reach the shore.
Another student of Imperial College, Mr C. M. Smith, aged 26, who was working for a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, and Mr J. Cole, aged 39, a radio officer from the Post Office experimental research station at Dollis Hill, were also drowned.