Captain Percy M. Lemon (1898 – 23 October 1932) was a signal officer and British polar explorer who was awarded the Polar Medal.Obituaries - Cambridge Journals
Biography In 1914, while still a teenager, Lemon was interned in Germany. After being released, he was not allowed to fight in the First World War. Later he joined the British Army and ended up in the Royal Corps of Signals, where he reached the rank of captain. He met Gino Watkins in 1928 in Cambridge and in 1930 he was chosen to be the wireless operator and signal officer of the 1930-1931 British Arctic Air Route Expedition (BAARE) led by Watkins. Later in the expedition, he would be in charge of the administration of the headquarters in East Greenland.The Geographical Journal Vol. 80, No. 6, Dec., 1932 Captain Lemon would be the first member of the expedition who had an Inuk mistress and one of the first who would learn the Greenlandic language.Sara Wheeler, The Magnetic North: Travels in the Arctic.
In the following year Lemon joined Watkins and Augustine Courtauld in a survey trip of the East Greenland seashore that explored as far north as the head of Kangerlussuaq Fjord. Then the three of them traveled southwards along the little explored King Frederick VI Coast on a gruesome open boat journey of . Braving harsh weather conditions, the three boats managed to go all the way south and round Cape Farewell, reaching finally Nanortalik on the western side. Watkins, Courtauld and Percy Lemon had made the dangerous trip on two small whaleboats and a kayak, a reckless venture that they were very lucky to survive.The sea canoeist newsletter - Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers (KASK)
Captain Lemon had become seriously ill after the arduous boat journey in Greenland and did not recover even after returning to England in the early fall of 1931. He died at a hospital in Bath the following year on 23 October 1932.The Montreal Gazette - Oct 25, 1932
Honours The Lemon Range in Greenland, was named after him.Alpine Journal - The Lemon Mountains of East Greenland
In October 1932, while in his deathbed, Captain Lemon was awarded the Polar Medal.Western Daily Press - Bristol, England 5 Nov 1932
Further reading Spencer Apollonio, Lands That Hold One Spellbound: A Story of East Greenland, 2008
Courtauld, Simon, The Watkins Boys, London, Michael Russell, 2010. . Scott, J.M., The Land That God Gave Cain, London, Chatto and Windus, 1933.
References
External links Archives - Riley, British Arctic Air Route Expedition