John Schjelderup Giæver

John Schjelderup Giæver (31 December 1901 – 9 November 1970) was a Norwegian author and polar researcher.

Jónsbú Station in NE Greenland was named after him.

Personal life He was born in Tromsø in Troms, Norway. He was the son of lawyer John Schjelderup Giæver (1864–1914) and his wife Thyra Høegh (1879–1954). He was the great-great-great-grandson of Jens Holmboe.

John Schjelderup Giæver married Oddbjørg Jacobsen in March 1940 and they had a son in April the same year. However, the marriage was dissolved. Giæver married Anna Margrethe Gløersen in 1948; this time they had a daughter, born 1954. later renamed into the Norwegian Polar Institute.

During World War II, he first fled to London where he worked as a secretary for the exiled government. From 1941 to 1944, he served with the Royal Norwegian Air Force-in-exile at Little Norway, Canada. In 1944, with the rank of Major, he was sent to Northern Norway to participate in the successful liberation from Nazi occupation. In 1947 he returned to the Norwegian Polar Institute as secretary, and from 1948 to 1960 he was office manager. However, he was still involved in the field as well, leading the wintering party of the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition from 1949 to 1952.

Other books include Ishavets glade borgere (1956); Langt der oppe mot nord (1958), Rabagaster under polarstjernen (1959), Fra min barndoms elv til fjerne veidemarker (1960), Fra Little Norway til Karasjok (1964), Med rev bak øret (1965), Dyretråkk og fugletrekk på 74° nord (1967), Lys og skygger i sjøgata (1969), Den gang jeg drog av sted (1970) and Soldøgn og mørketid (1971).

Giæver was awarded the Maudheim medal in 1952 and the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal in 1956, both for his leadership in the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition. He also held the St. Olav's Medal With Oak Branch, the Defence Medal 1940 – 1945, the Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal and Knight first class of the Order of Vasa.

He died in November 1970 in Oslo.