Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Royal Geographical Society Patron’s Gold Medal awarded to Captain Sir Alexander R. Glen, K.B.E., D.S.C., Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

Royal Geographical Society, Patron’s Gold Medal, 54mm, gold (9ct, 95.24g), the obverse featuring the bare head of George VI facing left, the reverse featuring Minerva standing left, holding wreath and map, with globe and sextant on ground, ‘Ob Terras Reclusas’ above, the edge engraved ‘Lieutenant Alexander R. Glen, R.N.V.R., 1940.’; together with the recipient’s Exploration of Polar Regions Bruce Medal for Valuable Services, 50mm, bronze, the edge engraved ‘Alexander Glen 1938’, nearly extremely fine (2) £6,000-£8,000

Sir Alexander (Sandy) Richard Glen was born in Glasgow on 18 April 1912, the son of a Glasgow ship-owner, and was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Geography. He first travelled to the Arctic in 1932, as part of an eight man crew of a 45ft fishing boat owned by a Cambridge law don; legend has it that Glen accepted the invitation to accompany the expedition under the misapprehension that it was an invitation to a debutante ball. Setting sail from King’s Lynn (with Glen still in his white tie and tails), the crew ventured to Spitzbergen, and completed 4,000 miles of sailing and two months of surveying.

The following year Glen led a more official 16 man Oxford University summer expedition to Spitzbergen to carry out topographical and geological surveys, spending some winter months with the Lapps of northern Sweden. He returned to Spitzbergen the following summer with the author Evelyn Waugh amongst the team (who nearly drowned when a glacier thawed). In 1935 he led another Oxford University expedition, establishing a research station on the ice cap of North East Land, and carried our research in glaciology, geology, and radio propagation in high latitudes. In 1937 he wrote a book about the expedition, entitled ‘Under the Pole Star’. For his expeditions and scientific work in the Arctic Glen was awarded the prestigious Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1940; at the age of 28 he was (and is) the youngest recipient of the medal. He was also awarded the Polar Medal (London Gazette 10 February 1942: ‘For good services with the Oxford University Arctic Expedition to North East Land in 1935 and 1936’) and received the Bruce Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1938.

After going down from Oxford Glen worked in investment banking in New York and London. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1938, and posted to Naval Intelligence he worked with Ian Fleming under its Director, Admiral John Godfrey. Inevitably, in later life it was rumoured that Glen was perhaps an inspiration for James Bond, but Glen himself always denied the link: ‘I don’t think it is true for a moment; I’m far too gentle, too law-abiding.’

In January 1940 Glen was posted to Belgrade as assistant naval attaché at the British legation, where he met his future wife, the Serbian Baroness Zora (Zorica) de Collaert. Following the bombing of Belgrade in 1941 the British legation left and made their way home via Kotor, Albania, Italy, Vichy France, and Spain. He then worked on the staff of Rear-Admiral Philip Vian in 1941 helping to evacuate Norwegian and Russian coalminers and trappers in the Arctic Circle, and he spent some time protecting Spitzbergen from a German invasion. In the early summer of 1942, he took part in two 27-hour reconnaissances of Spitzbergen by Catalina flying boats of Coastal Command, based in the Shetlands. He then joined a 70-strong joint British-Norwegian force sent by boat, which was sunk by a Luftwaffe raid as they arrived in Spitzbergen harbour. As the survivors struggled ashore, Glen remembered where to find the frozen corpses of 60 slaughtered pigs, and they lived off these, washed down with abandoned German brandy and champagne.

Glen later served with distinction with the Russian Army in eastern Europe in 1943-44, sabotaging traffic on the River Danube to disrupt oil supplies to Germany. He also took part in various clandestine and dangerous operations in Yugoslavia with Fitzroy Mclean, in support of Marshal Tito. He ended the War on the British staff in Athens. For his services during the Second World War he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1942 (London Gazette 27 October 1942), and a Second Award Bar in 1945 (London Gazette 20 February 1945). He was also awarded the Norwegian and Czechoslovakian War Crosses, and was created a Chevalier First Class of the Order of St. Olav (London Gazette 9 May 1944).

Post-War, Glen joined the ship-broking business of Clarksons, eventually rising to become the firm’s Chairman. Remaining in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, he was advanced Captain in the Supply and Secretariat Branch on 30 June 1955, and served as a Member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society periodically from 1945 to 1962. Appointed C.B.E. in 1964 (London Gazette 1 January 1964), he was advanced K.B.E. in 1967 (London Gazette 1 January 1967), and went on to hold various positions in the travel and hotel sector, including the Chairmanship of the British Tourist Authority. Amongst other public appointments he became Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He published his memoirs ‘Footholds Against a Whirlwind’, in 1975, and co-wrote (with Leighton Bowen) ‘Target Danube, a River not quite too far’ in 2002. He died on 6 March 2004.

The Sandy and Zorica Glen Charitable Settlement (Charity no. 326311) is a grant making charity that supports a small range of charities in helping to develop leadership qualities in the young via exploration trips and other outdoor activities; and encouraging the conservation of heritage works of art.

For the recipient’s group of twelve miniature awards, see Lot 618.