# Michael Spender

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**Michael Alfred Spender** (11 November 1906 – 5 May 1945) was an English explorer, surveyor, a leader in photo interpretation in the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War), and an [RAF](/source/RAF) [squadron leader](/source/Squadron_leader).

## Personal life

He was the eldest son of [Harold Spender](/source/Harold_Spender) and Violet, and a brother of the poet [Stephen Spender](/source/Stephen_Spender) and the artist [Humphrey Spender](/source/Humphrey_Spender).[1][2]

He graduated from [Balliol College](/source/Balliol_College,_Oxford), [Oxford University](/source/Oxford_University), with a double first in Engineering, and then worked as a surveyor on the [Great Barrier Reef](/source/Great_Barrier_Reef) from 1928 to 1929 and in [East Greenland](/source/East_Greenland) in 1932 and 1933. In 1935 he joined an [expedition to the Himalayas](/source/1935_British_Mount_Everest_reconnaissance_expedition) and mapped 26 peaks over 26,000 feet.[2]

In 1933 he married his first wife Erika Haarmann, and their son John-Christopher was born in 1936. In the late 1930s the artist [Nancy Sharp](/source/Nancy_Spender) (the first wife of [William Coldstream](/source/William_Coldstream) and the lover of [Louis MacNeice](/source/Louis_MacNeice)), fell in love with Spender. Michael and Nancy divorced their respective spouses, and they were married in 1943. Their son [Philip](/source/Philip_Spender) was born the same year.[3][4]

Spender was regarded as arrogant and tactless,[2] and he had a difficult relationship with his brother Stephen.

## Death

On 3 May 1945 Michael was a passenger in an [Avro Anson](/source/Avro_Anson) aircraft, and he was seriously injured when it crashed near [Süchteln](/source/S%C3%BCchteln) in Germany; he died on 5 May. Stephen was deeply affected, and he wrote the [elegy](/source/Elegy) *Seascape* for his brother.[1]

He was buried at Eindhoven General Cemetery at [Woensel](/source/Woensel) in the Netherlands.[5]

## References

1. [John Sutherland, *Sir Stephen Harold Spender*, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004](http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/57986?docPos=1)

1. [The Royal Geographical Society, Imaging Everest, Michael Spender](https://web.archive.org/web/20030702171454/http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/Units/73.html)

1. ["Nancy Spender"](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1310454/Nancy-Spender.html). *The Daily Telegraph*. 27 June 2001.

1. Margetson, John (25 June 2001). ["Obituary: Nancy Spender"](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/25/guardianobituaries.arts). *The Guardian*

1. Reading Room Manchester. ["CWGC – Casualty Details"](http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2618148). *cwgc.org*

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Michael Spender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Spender) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Spender?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.