Roy Koerner MBE was a Polar explorer who participated in the 1968-1969 surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean with expedition leader Sir Wally Herbert.
[2] From an early age, he was nicknamed "Fritz" on account of his Germanic surname, and the moniker stuck.
He was educated at Sheffield University, after which he taught at Bridgemary Community School before joining the British Antarctic Survey in 1957.
From 1968 to 1969 he was a member of the British Trans-Arctic Expedition led by Wally Herbert, a 3,800 miles (6,100 km) surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska to Spitsbergen.
In the 1970s Koerner emigrated to Canada where he spent more than forty years studying the history embedded in glacial ice.