Most historical research is text-based, but sometimes you actually have to talk about this stuff to actual living people using your voice. Most of the men on the Scott Expedition had names that would be familiar to an English-speaker and fairly self-evident in their pronunciation, but there are a few tricky ones.
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Personally about as English as they come, though his double-barrelled surname has French origins. Cherry is obvious, but a lot of people go straight for ‘Gerard’ (je- or zhe-rard) for the second half. In fact the G is hard, as in ‘gammon’, and the emphasis on the first syllable, with a short A as in ‘hat’. If he were to explain for himself:
Atch was another straight-down-the-line Englishman; his real name was Edward Leicester Atkinson. While that looks simple enough, some Anglophones who have been separated from the mother country for some time might be tempted to pronounce his middle name (which is what his family called him) “Lie-ses-ter,” when in fact it is pronounced “Lester”, just like the city and the square in London.
A trickier one is the Irish seaman …
Patrick Keohane
In the radio play they say ‘Kee-o-hayn’, and Ponting in his narration to 90°South says ‘Ko-hahn’. But by chance I once met his granddaughter, and she said ‘Kyo-hann’, so that’s what I’m going with until proven otherwise.
Once you’ve got those under your belt, you can level up to Norwegian:
Tryggve Gran
A clue is there in that the Anglophone nickname for him was ‘Trigger.’ Another clue, thanks to the internet, is a handy pronunciation video. According to that, you say it ‘Trrig-vuh’, with a rolled R. ‘Gran’ is pronounced ‘Grahn’, to rhyme with ‘yawn’. That is also how the A in ‘Fram’ (Amundsen’s ship) is pronounced, and, conveniently, the A in ‘Amundsen’.
