JOHN BRYAN HEANEY, 1931–2010

Abstract

John Heaney was an explorer, a widely travelled oilman, and a long-serving Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and long standing member of the Geographical Club. Born in Burma on 26 February 1931, his early years were spent in India where his father, Brigadier G F ‘Tim’ Heaney was Surveyor General. Like many men of his generation, he was deeply influenced by his colonial childhood in South Asia, and he developed a love of the outdoors that became life-long. After attending Marlborough College and being trained as a surveyor during National Service, he was chosen for Duncan Carse's South Georgia Survey of 1951–52. That party defined the shape and structure of the island and mapped about 40% of it, including the glacier that bears Heaney's name. On returning from South Georgia, John Heaney went to Cambridge where he read mechanical sciences. With a career in Shell already in view, he was determined to lead his own expedition before the world of work took over. On the advice of Dr Brian Roberts of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Gough Island, an uninhabited extinct volcano 230 miles south south east of Tristan da Cunha, was chosen. The Gough Island Scientific Survey team included Heaney as surveyor, Robert Chambers as assistant surveyor and deputy leader, and a geologist, botanist, two zoologists, a radio operator and a cine-photographer. The South African Weather Bureau seconded a senior meteorologist. Sadly, Heaney had to withdraw through illness before the party left, and Chambers was injured during the landing on Gough in November 1955 and had to be evacuated. The senior scientist, Martin Holdgate, was left in command but had no survey training. Heaney, meanwhile, had made a good recovery and had just married his fiancée, Catherine Haller. She urged him to join the expedition and the result was a new map at 1:40 000, published in The Geographical Journal in 1957. Heaney's determination and toughness were truly tested, not least by the rampant mice on the Island, which invaded their tents (Holdgate 1958, 124). The expedition yielded many scientific papers and established the island's importance to conservation: it is now a World Heritage site. Following a presentation by Heaney and Holdgate to the RGS in 1956, Heaney was awarded the Mrs Patrick Ness Award. The expedition, unusually, returned in financial surplus and was able to establish the Gough Island Fund at the RGS for the benefit of future expeditions. With the expedition over, John Heaney joined Shell. He worked in West Pakistan as an ‘exploitation engineer’ before moving to spend 7 years in Venezuela where his immediate junior was the geologist and mountaineer George Band. Together with their families they spent weekends in the high Andes and on one occasion chartered a DC3 to fly over Canaima and the Angel Falls – with a portable bar in case gin and tonics were needed for libatious uplift! After Venezuela, John Heaney served in London, Brunei and Nigeria before retiring in 1979 to take over the family fruit farm in Essex. But he was soon persuaded to set up a new company, Saxon Oil, which struck oil on its North Sea concession and was promptly taken over by a bigger concern, Enterprise Oil. Fruit farming – to which he devoted his characteristic energy and imagination – then became Heaney's main concern until final retirement in 2003. He also remained keenly interested in the world of geography and exploration and regularly attended RGS meetings. Hindered by Alzheimer's, he remained active, taking daily walks on Southampton Common, where he died suddenly on 3 November 2010, aged 79. He is survived by his wife and by their son and daughter and five grandchildren.