Bill Mead in Iceland

I've been re-reading some writing I did about the GA President for 1981: Professor Bill Mead. I was writing about some work he did. 

When he passed away at the age of 99, Hugh Clout wrote an obituary of Bill for the British Academy.

In it, he described Bill's relationship with Iceland. Bill was an expert in Scandinavian geography. He had originally planned to head for Iceland in 1939, but spent time in Denmark and Sweden instead.

One month earlier he volunteered to serve in the Royal Air Force but was not called up until June 1940. Despite physical fitness and excellent vision, Bill was not trained as a pilot but was directed to an administrative post in a navigation school. Bill’s initial posting to a camp in Yorkshire was followed by three months at Helgafell in Iceland. After earlier disappointment, he was thrilled by the thought of going there and was ‘probably the only happy man on the boat’. Reykjavik ‘glittered fascinatingly in the distance, but was out of bounds’ to airmen.