Orkney’s Dr John Rae has been voted as the most inspiring surveyor in RICS’ (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Pride in the Profession Mappers category, following a campaign to showcase the contribution of surveying to the modern world.
‘Pride in the Profession’ was launched in 2018 to mark 150 years of the RICS.
Categories included:
- Innovators
- Environmentalists
- Mappers
- Urbanists
Dr John Rae was the overall winner in the Pride in the Profession Mappers category, celebrating members of the profession who have progressed the understanding of the physical location of territorial borders, features of geography, and land use including transportation infrastructure and buildings.
Over the course of his lifetime, Rae travelled more than 37,000 kilometers and charted more than 2,475 kilometers of remote, previously unexplored Canadian arctic coastline. His skills as a surveyor were unparalleled and the accuracy of his mapping has only recently been surpassed. His contribution to society was immense. His unrelenting dedication and unparalleled surveying skills, practiced for the most part in extreme arctic conditions, produced maps that laid the foundations for new communication routes that changed the world.
An Entrancing Start to the John Rae Society 2018 Festival
Shortlisted entries in the Mappers category, included Norman Leppard, for his services to Antarctic Surveying and Brigadier Martin Hotine, best known for his work with the Ordnance Survey, remapping the entirety of Britain between the mid-1930s and 1962.
In 2018 RICS Dr John Rae was inducted into the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and awarded the prestigious posthumous title of Honorary Chartered Surveyor.
The Arctic Return Expedition
RICS has also sponsored the Arctic Return expedition in March 2019, which will see an expedition team return to Naujaat and embark upon a 650-kilometre trek across Boothia Peninsula following the route taken by Rae and his indigenous companions.
Retracing John Rae’s Expedition
