J. M. Scott

Polar explorer and author.

This description is derived from chapter 5 of "The Watkins Boys" by Simon Courtauld, published by Michael Russell of Norwich in 2010, and from British Polar Exploration and Research, by N.R.Poulsom and J.A.L.Myres, published by Savannah Publications in 2000.

James Maurice Scott was the son of a lawyer who grew up on the Island of Mull, went to Fettes School and read natural sciences at Clare College Cambridge, where he also obtained a rugby blue and met Gino Watkins. In 1928 the pair went to Labrador to explore and map a wild inland area, travelling on foot, by canoe, and with dog teams. Watkins then organised the British Arctic Air Route Expediton of 1930-31 for which Jamie bought the dogs in West Greenland. Watkins drowned on his second trip to Greenland in August, 1932. Jamie married Gino's sister Pam in 1933 and published a biography of Gino in 1935.

During World War Two, Scott was engaged in irregular warfare.

Scott published the first of more than twenty books in 1935 and spent nearly thirty years working for the Daily Telegraph.

In retirement he was a keen gardener; at the age of seventy-nine he fell from an apple tree and suffered a fatal heart attack.