Col. JOHN BLASHFORD-SNELL (7-1983)

British Army (Royal Engineers)

Colonel JOHN was educated at Victoria College in Jersey than to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers.

His expeditions are too numerous to list fully, but here are a few:

The first descent of the Blue Nile (1968);
Crossing of the Darien Gap (1971 to 1972);
The first vehicular journey from Alaska to Cape Horn;
Complete navigation of the Congo River (1974 to 1975).

In 1969 he founded the Scientific Exploration Society;

In 1978 he established Operation Drake which later became Operation Raleigh. This was an educational initiative for young people. He was the Director General until 1991.

He was awarded the Segrave Trophy in 1974;
In 1993 he was awarded the Patron’s Gold Medal of the Royal Geographic Society.

In 2006 he helped the London hat maker James Lock to design a hat especially to meet the needs of explorers.

He is the Honorary President of the Centre for Foreign Zoology; is a member of the Ghost Club and recently was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool James Moores University.

Col. JOHN is still leading expeditions to remote areas, and his findings in South America have helped Sharkhunters quest to learn the final fates of so many leaders and high ranking people of the Third Reich who escaped there.