Wilfrid George Kendrew

Wilfrid George Kendrew (12 September 1884 – 4 April 1962) was a British climatologist.

Early life Kendrew was born in Keith, Banffshire in northern Scotland in 1884. His father was a customs officer who soon moved the family to Dublin. Kendrew attended Mountjoy School before going to Oxford University where he studied classical literature.

Career In 1911, he obtained a Certificate in Regional Geography and a Diploma in Geography and began to lecture in the School of Geography in 1912. His first publication was a chapter on climate written for the Oxford Survey of the British Empire edited by his professor at the time, A. J. Herbertson. He became a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1913.

When World War I began he enlisted in the army and started officer training at a program in Oxford. In 1917 he joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers and served in France as an intelligence officer. After the war he returned to lecturing at Oxford, eventually rising to the position of Dean of the Society for non-collegiate students, later known as St Catherine's Society.

In 1942, he joined the Royal Navy Reserve as a Lieutenant where he was assigned to set up a weather station on Agaléga Island in the western Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar. The purpose of the station was to give weather reports to the RAF which were operating in the area. During that time he kept up with his writing and scholarly activities. he published a book entitled Weather: An Introductory Meteorology For Airmen in 1942 and performed surveys of flora and fauna on the island.