Sir Walter William "Wally" Herbert (24 October 1934 – 12 June 2007) was a British polar explorer, writer and artist. In 1969 he became the first man to walk undisputed to the North Pole, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's famous, but disputed, expedition. ^[1] He was described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as "the greatest polar explorer of our time".

During the course of his polar career, which spanned more than 50 years, he spent 15 years in the wilderness regions of the polar world, and travelled with dog teams and open boats well over 23,000 miles - more than half of that distance through unexplored areas.^[2]

Early career[link]

Walter Herbert was born into an army family in England but emigrated to Egypt at the age of three, then to South Africa for nine years. He studied at the Royal School of Military Survey then spent 18 months surveying in Egypt and Cyprus. He traveled back to England through Turkey and Greece, drawing portraits for his board and lodging.

In 1955 he carried out surveying in the Antarctic with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, during which he became an expert in dog sleighing. On a journey along the Antarctic Peninsula from Hope Bay to Portal Point he sledged some 5,000 km. This experience with dogs led him to a job with the New Zealand Antarctic programme which commissioned him to purchase dogs in Greenland for the Antarctic. There he learnt Inuit methods of dog driving.

As leader of an exploration party in the early 1960s Herbert surveyed a large area of the Queen Maud range and followed Shackleton (1908) and Scott's (1911) route up the Beardmore Glacier. Denied a request to proceed to the South Pole, his party then ascended Mount Nansen and descended a route taken by Amundsen in 1911, thus being the first to retrace these explorers' traverses. In 1964 he then trekked the routes taken by Sverdrup and Cook from Greenland to Ellesmere Island in the Arctic.

British Trans-Arctic Expedition[link]

From 1968 to 1969 Wally led the British Trans-Arctic Expedition, a 3,800-mile surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska to Spitsbergen, which some historians had billed as the ‘the last great journey on Earth.’ In July 1968, having crossed 1,900 km of rough drifting ice, Wally and his team established a camp. Because they could not reach a position where the drift of the trans-Arctic ice-stream was in their favour, they were forced to stay for the winter, as they drifted around the pole. Only when sunlight returned the following year could they continue their journey, finally reaching the North Pole via the Pole of Inaccessibility on April 6, 1969. Their feat was recognised by the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, as "a feat of endurance and courage which ranks with any in polar history", and which Prince Philip stated "ranks among the greatest triumphs of human skill and endurance".^[2]

In recognition of his polar achievements, he received several honours and awards: among them the Polar Medal and bar; the Founders' Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, the gold medals of several Geographical Societies, and the Explorers Medal of the Explorers Club. He has a mountain range and a plateau named after him in the Antarctic; the most northerly mountain in Svalbard named after him in the Arctic.

Later life[link]

Between 1979 and 1981 Wally and Allan Gill attempted to circumnavigate Greenland by dog sled and umiak, a traditional boat. It was planned to take 16 months to cover the 13,000km but poor weather made it impossible. Near Loch Fyrne, Wally wrote:

We were forced to take to the land and haul the sledges across steaming tundra and rock bare of snow, swollen rivers, baked mud flats, sand-dunes, swamps and stagnant pools. We were blasted by duststorms and eaten alive by mosquitoes

Wally was also a prize-winning author and an artist, and had one-man shows in London, New York and Sydney.^[2]

Peary Controversy[link]

Herbert became involved in the controversy over whether Peary had in fact reached the North Pole in 1909. He was commissioned by the National Geographic Society, which had supported Peary's claim since 1909, to write a biography, but as he researched Peary's life he came to realise that Peary must have falsified his records, and not reached the Pole. His book, The Noose of Laurels, caused a furore when it was published in 1989, complicated by the fact that his conclusion meant that Herbert himself had a better claim to be the first explorer to have reached the North Pole on foot. His conclusion was widely accepted ^[3], although some have disputed the conclusion, including the explorer Tom Avery^[4]

Herbert was knighted in 2000.^[2]

Bibliography[link]

• The Polar World, Wally Herbert, 2007
• The Noose of Laurels, Wally Herbert, 1989
• Polar Deserts, Wally Herbert
• Hunters of the Polar North, Wally Herbert
• Eskimos, Wally Herbert (won the 1977 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis)
• North Pole, Wally Herbert
• Across the Top of the World, Wally Herbert
• A World of Men, Wally Herbert

References[link]

The Guardian, Sir Wally Herbert, Obituaries, Friday June 15 2007

External links[link]

• Sir Wally Herbert's homepage

Kari Herbert (born 17 September 1970) is a British travel writer, photographer and television presenter.

Biography[link]

The daughter of polar explorer, Sir Wally Herbert, Herbert spent the first few years of her life living on a remote island in the Arctic with the Polar Inuit of Northwest Greenland. Her first language was Inuktun, the local dialect of Greenlandic. At the age of four Herbert accompanied her parents on a journey that took them through winter blizzards in a caravan to spend time with the Sami of Lapland. She has continued to travel extensively ever since.

After leaving school she studied Media & Design in Portsmouth, then went on to work as a fashion stylist for Japanese rock bands before becoming a travel writer and photographer for newspapers and magazines such as The Independent, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Geographical and Traveller magazines.

Herbert's first book, The Explorer's Daughter, was published by Penguin Books in 2005, and was chosen as 'Book of the Week' by BBC Radio 4. She is currently working on her second book.

Herbert has appeared on several radio and television programmes, and presented a short documentary film about climate change for BBC Four in 2006. She has had solo exhibitions of her photography in the UK and Europe.

Herbert is Founder and Managing Director of Polarworld, an independent publishing company that specialises in producing books about the Polar Regions. Books published to date include The Polar World by Sir Wally Herbert, North-East Greenland - The Trapper Era by Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen and Face to Face: Polar Portraits by Dr Huw Lewis-Jones in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.

Herbert is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of The Explorers Club, New York.

Programmes[link]

Television[link]

• Northern Melt - From the Frontline of Global Warming - short film – BBC Four

Radio[link]

• Book of the Week, BBC Radio 4 (read by Emilia Fox)
• With Clive Anderson – Justice system in Greenland, BBC Radio 4
• Everywoman, BBC World Service
• Sandi Toksvig Show, LBC
• Vanessa Feltz Show, BBC London
• Excess Baggage, BBC Radio 4
• Piecing together the Ice Museum, BBC Radio 3
• Tubridy Show, RTÉ

Bibliography[link]

• Heart of the Hero, Kari Herbert, Viking/Penguin, to be released January 2010
• The Explorer's Daughter, Kari Herbert, Viking, 2004 ISBN 0-670-91374-X
• The Explorer's Daughter, Kari Herbert, Penguin, 2005 ISBN 0-14-101149-X
• Als de Toendra Roept, Kari Herbert, The House of Books, 2006 ISBN 10:90-443-1671-0 (Dutch Translation)
• Mit Arktiske Barndomsland, Kari Herbert, Host & Son, 2005 ISBN 87-638-0134-5 (Danish Translation)
• The Polar World, Sir Wally Herbert, edited by Kari Herbert, Polarworld 2007, ISBN 978-0-9555255-1-3

External links[link]

• Homepage
• Literary agent
• Profile at the Voice123 Voice over agency
• BBC clip from 'Climate Chaos' series - 'Northern Melt'

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2011)

Ron Carroll is an American DJ, singer, songwriter and producer. He is primarily known in the house music circuit. Carroll has worked with many of house's most famous producers, including E-Smoove, Maurice Joshua and Bob Sinclar. He has also produced, usually with partner Spero Pagos, for other vocalists or his own songs.

Career[link]

Carroll was born in Chicago in 1968. As a boy, he learned to sing while a member of his church choir. As a teenager, he was a fan of rock band KISS, but became interested in house music when he attended a high school dance and spent time watching the DJ perform.^[1] Carroll started performing as a DJ in the late 1980s in a club he himself opened. He released his first official record, "My Prayer", in 1993, a track produced by local producers Hula (from the Outhere Brothers), Kay Fingers and Ron Trent. Because of his style of singing like a preacher, he received the nickname "The Minister of Sound".

In 1994, he got his first big break when he attended the Winter Music Conference in Miami. Still an unknown outside Chicago, Carroll walked up to Louie Vega, who gave him a chance to write the lyrics to Barbara Tucker's "I Get Lifted".^[1] This allowed the opportunity to join Mike Dunn and Byron Stingily, also from the Chicago house scene, in the Deep Soul production company as singer, songwriter and producer.^[2] He wrote the lyrics for six tracks in Stingily's album The Purist and also wrote and produced the anthem "The Sermon". In 1996 he met Greek-American producer Spero Pagos, and the two created MOS Productions (for Ministers Of Sound), for the UC/Afterhours label.

In this label, he also met Mazi Namvar, who introduced him to the European house scene. This allowed him to take part in the French house classics "My Love" (produced by Kluster) and "Lucky Star" (produced by Superfunk), both released in 2000. The following year, he opened his own label, Body Music Records. Carroll's activities as a singer in Europe brought him into contact with Dutch producers Hardsoul in 2003, for whom he wrote and sang in "Back Together", followed in 2004 by "Wonderful World" for Bob Sinclar and Axwell, a track that appeared in Sinclar's album Western Dream.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• 2006 Chicago^{[citation needed]}

Singles[link]

Ron Carroll

• 1993 "My Prayer" (with Hula, Kay Fingers and Ron Trent)
• 1993 "A New Day" (with Hula and Kay Fingers)
• 1995 "Pressing On"
• 1999 "Gimme Love" (with Spero Pagos)
• 1999 "Soundz" (with Spero Pagos)
• 1999 "Stronger" (with Mazi)
• 2001 "Angel"
• 2001 "Get With Him" (with Church Is One Foundation)
• 2001 "Take Me Up" (with E-Smoove)
• 2002 "Live In Me"
• 2002 "Natural"
• 2002 "Can't Give Up" (with Shawn Christopher)
• 2003 "Sexy Thing"
• 2004 "Come Into My Life" (with Richard Grey)
• 2005 "Classical Moments In Time" (with Derrick May)
• 2005 "The Only Way Is Up" (with Disco Darlings)
• 2006 "Just Got Paid"
• 2006 "Weak", with Jjah
• 2007 "Come Into My Life 2007" (with Richard Grey)
• 2007 "All My Life" (with Jazmina)
• 2010 "Lucky Star"
• 2010 "In Love with a DJ" with CeCe Peniston
• 2010 "Freak E.P."

RC Groove/RC Groove Project

• 1998 "Sermon One EP", as RC Groove Project (with Mike Dunn)
• 2000 "The Sermon", as RC Groove Project
• 2001 "Nothin' But Funk", as RC Groove
• 2001 "Brighter Day", as 'RC Groove Project
• 2001 "The RC Groove Project #2", as RC Groove Project
• 2002 "Strings", as RC Groove
• 2002 "High Again", as RC Groove (with Lady D)
• 2003 "Believe", as RC Groove Project (with Dawn Tallman)
• 2003 "Spirit Of The Dance", as RC Groove
• 2003 "Superfreaque Music", as RC Groove (with Dino Vulpitta)

Testament

• 1999 "It Is Well"
• 2000 "Work It Out" (with Spero Pagos)
• 2000 "We Need Love" (with Robert Collado)
• 2003 "Sun Is Shining"
• 2005 "World Harmony"

Other aliases

• 1998 "My Way", as Subculture (with Rick Garcia and Lejuan)
• 1998 "Feel It, Move It, Shout It", as Ron Carroll's Black Pearl (with Paul Walton)
• 2000 "Beautiful", as Ground Level (with Spero Pagos and Rheji)
• 2000 "Got To Hold On", as Ministers Of Sound (with Spero Pagos and Paul Walton)
• 2001 "Someday", as Ground Level (with Spero Pagos and Rheji)
• 2001 "Can You Feel It", as Subculture (with Rick Garcia)
• 2001 "Wait", as The RC Connection (with Mazi and Jackie Haywood)
• 2002 "Deep In My Soul", as Shay Coco Butta (with Josh Collins)

Production

• 2000 Rochele Fleming - "It's Not Over"
• 2001 Curtis Harman - "Call Me", with Josh Collins
• 2001 CeCe Peniston - "My Boo"
• 2005 Sunny Larican - "Always"
• 2005 Trina Tru Luv - "True Love"
• 2005 Vicki B - "Something Must Change"
• 2005 Shawn Christopher - "You Can Make It"
• 2005 Melba Moore - "My Heart Belongs To You"
• 2006 Darryl D'Bonneau - "Feel It"
• 2006 Mona Lisa - "Dancin'"
• 2007 Ce Ce Peniston - "I'm Feelin' U", with DJ Fudge

Appears on

• 1993 House Culture - "Let The Music Set U Free"
• 1996 Blak Beat Niks - "Ooohhh"
• 1997 Michi Lange - "The Only Way Is Up"
• 1998 DJ Pope - "Waymaker"
• 1999 Rick Garcia - "Dancefloor"
• 2000 Superfunk - "Lucky Star"
• 2000 Kluster- "My Love"
• 2000 Rick Garcia - "Dancefloor"
• 2000 DJ Bam Bam - "Soundz"
• 2002 Audio Soul Project - "Community"
• 2002 Mazi - "This Feeling" (with Josh Collins)
• 2003 Peter Presta - "Changes"
• 2003 Hardsoul - "Back Together"
• 2004 Bob Sinclar - "Wonderful World"
• 2004 Superfunk Inc. - "Promised Land"
• 2004 Superfunk Inc. - "Lover"
• 2004 Bob Sinclar - "World of Love"
• 2005 Abstract Beating System - "Vibes"
• 2006 Hardsoul - "My Life" (with Sven Vigee)
• 2007 Bob Sinclar - "Everybody Movin'" (with Mz Toni)
• 2007 Audio Soul Project - "Community 2007"
• 2008 Bob Sinclar & Axwell - "What a Wonderfull World"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ron Carroll discography at Discogs
• Ron Carroll zene