[3] He was the skiing expert on the 1910–13 Scott Antarctic Expedition and was the first person to fly across the North Sea from Scotland to Norway in a heavier-than-air aircraft in August 1914.

During WW1 he joined the Royal Flying Corps and flew night bombing raids on the Western Front, for which he was awarded the Military Cross.

[4] Gran took an interest in science and exploration which in 1910 led to Fridtjof Nansen recommending his services to Robert Falcon Scott, who was in Norway at the time preparing for an expedition to the Antarctic and testing the motor tractor he intended to take with him.

Arriving in Antarctica in early January 1911, Gran was one of the 13 expedition members involved in the laying of the supply depots needed for the attempt to reach the South Pole later that year.

From November 1911 to February 1912, while Scott and the rest of the Southern party were on their journey to the Pole, Gran accompanied the geological expedition to the western mountains led by Griffith Taylor.

Before leaving Antarctica he made an ascent of Mount Erebus with Raymond Priestley and Frederick Hooper in December 1912, an occasion which nearly ended in disaster when an unexpected eruption caused a shower of huge pumice blocks to fall around him.

His instructor, George Lee Temple (who also taught Max Le Verrier, who flew in Escadrille 112 during the war[8]) died in a flying accident in 1914 aged only 21.

[16] Taking off in his Blériot XI-2 monoplane, named Ca Flotte (it was equipped with air cushions in case of ditching)[17] from Cruden Bay, Scotland, Gran landed 4 hours 10 minutes later at Jæren, near Stavanger, Norway, after a flight of 320 miles (510 km).

This record-breaking achievement, the longest flight over water to date by a heavier-than air machine,[d] was overshadowed by the outbreak of World War I only five days later.

[20] Gran joined the newly formed Norwegian Army Air Service as a Lieutenant on 3 August 1914, and his Bleriot XI was bought by the government.

[24] By March 1916, nothing had been heard of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition since December 1914, and he offered to go on a relief ship to search for the Ross Sea party and the Aurora.

[28][29] It was agreed that to circumvent the problem of his neutral Norwegian nationality, he would be given a commission under the assumed identity of "Teddy Grant", a Canadian aviator.

[32] He was initially assigned to 11 Reserve Training Squadron, part of the London Air Defence Area, based at RAF Northolt.

What seems to be a barely-concealed official excuse for Gran's permission to join the RFC appeared in a Norwegian newspaper: "It's a curious story that comes from the Christiania Dagblad regarding Lieut.

[42] 39 Squadron usually flew Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2s and B.E.12s, but the unit operated at least one Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8.,[43] the type which Gran would later fly to make the first (indirect) flight from London to Stockholm via Kristiania.

[46][47] On 24 July 1917 he was posted to the recently formed 44 Squadron, also part of Home Defence, based at Hainault Farm, Ilford,[48] Essex (later RAF Fairlop), flying Sopwith Camels.

[50] It's not entirely clear how Gran managed to progress as far as he did without a valid pilot's license, but on 2 August 1917 he finally received Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificate No.

[58] That night he was badly wounded in the leg by anti-aircraft fire ('Archie') while flying over occupied territory, managed to land just inside Allied lines and hospitalised.

[60] In his book recounting his wartime experiences, Gran reproduces three letters dated August to October 1917 from James McCudden "in his own handwriting", but omits to mention that he wasn't the original recipient.

[72] He immediately joined the crew of Handley Page's entry, a V/1500 four-engined bomber, in the Daily Mail's Transatlantic Air Race, which had been postponed during the war.

[g] A publicity stunt organised by Handley Page to fly the V/1500 straight to New York in early July 1919 was cut short when the aircraft suffered overheating engines again and crashed at Parrsboro racecourse, Nova Scotia.

[84] While flying together, Rickards and Gran were forced down by bad weather and landed at Waddon (later Croydon Airport) where the Aircraft Disposals Company was being managed by Handley Page.

[86][87][i] In the spring of 1921 Gran was in collision with a motorcycle in London and injured his left leg so severely that he was unable to resume active flying, and he returned home to Norway.

[91] In May 1922 Gran travelled with the future Olympic skiers Thorleif Haug and Jacob Tullin Thams to Svalbard to prepare for a ski trip across the ice sheet.

In 1928, he sailed on the Veslekari[92] as part of a concerted effort to search for the polar explorer Roald Amundsen, lost flying while trying to discover the fate of Umberto Nobile's North Pole expedition on board the Airship Italia.

He said that Gran had spent some time in a military jail (Kakebu) suspected of being a spy; but on his release he had acted almost like the head of the prison camps and had ordered 300 soldiers to clear snow for farmers in Hemsedal.

[95] Gran was found guilty of treason and sentenced to a prison term of 18 months: but since he had already been incarcerated during his arrest he didn't serve any further time in jail.

[96] It has been speculated Gran feared reprisals from the pro-German fascist party because of his commitment to the Royal Air Force in the First World War.

Others have speculated that his friendship with Göring and bitterness over not being offered a full-time job in the Norwegian Army Air Service may have been reasons for Gran to support the NS during the Nazi occupation of Norway.

[98] "The purchase included two of Mr Gran's journals as well as his Polar Medal as a member of the Antarctic expedition, United Kingdom Military Cross, French Legion of Honour and Italian Order of the Crown.