Dr Reginald Koettlitz (1860–1916): Arctic and Antarctic explorer

Abstract

Reginald Koettlitz was born in Ostend but moved to England as a child and qualified at Guy's Hospital. He was a general practitioner in County Durham for eight years before serving as doctor and geologist to the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition to Franz-Josef Land in 1894–97. Thereafter he made further expeditions to Somaliland, Abyssinia and the Amazon before joining Captain Scott's Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic in 1901–04 as surgeon and botanist. After the expedition he emigrated to South Africa, where he worked as a general practitioner, dying in 1916.