Charles Swithinbank

Abstract

Charles Swithinbank 1926–2014 Source: Licensed with permission of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge Charles Winthrop Molesworth Swithinbank, a distinguished polar glaciologist, died on 27 May 2014 aged 87. His career, exceeding six decades, covered the major period of the development of his science and its many practical applications. In total he spent three winters, more than twenty field seasons in, and many briefer visits to, both polar regions. He was born in Pegu, Burma, on 17 November 1926, the son of Bernard Swithinbank of the Indian Civil Service. In an autobiographical work to explain why a fairly normal young man should find such an abnormal occupation [as a glaciologist] he included some brief comments about his background. Of his early days he wrote: In Burma of the 1920s my mother was the only woman who could wield an elephant gun. She was a naturalist who loved animals. She told of swinging her tame leopard by its tail into a tree. Fortunately the leopard too, thought this was fun. My mother's love of travel and open spaces must have rubbed off on to her children. Some of her advice to him was Don't get stuck in an office like your father. In his 80th year Charles returned to Burma, as a holiday, making an extensive tour during which he revisited places he remembered from childhood. His formal education began in Britain at the age of seven. Later he started boarding at Bryanston School, Dorset, on the same date as the Second World War began. Towards the end of the war he enlisted in the Royal Navy. He served for two and a half years, eventually being commissioned as a sub-lieutenant. During this period he visited Svalbard where the Arctic landscape left a lasting impression. In October 1946 he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read geography. In 1947 he took part in the Oxford University Exploration Club expedition to Vatnajökull, Iceland, man-hauling sledges while becoming wet and tired. The following year he was in Gambia with the club. Subsequently, at an informal meeting of the club, he was asked if he wanted to go to Antarctica and wrote it took me a fraction of a second to reply. In that second the course of my life was changed forever. Thus, after training in Swedish Lapland, he became a member of the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1949 to 1952 spending two winters and three summers involved in survey and glaciology based at Maudheim in Dronning Maud Land. This was the first unequivocal international Antarctic Expedition and much of its work was pioneer studies of the thickness of the Antarctic ice-sheet. Thorshövdi, a whaling factory ship assisted with transport of sledge dogs thus he came to know this Antarctic industry and its activities on the Southern Ocean. The expedition's work was accomplished with a series of long tractor train traverses and seismic survey, thus he became familiar with the interior ice-sheet. The data he accumulated formed a major part of his D. Phil thesis. In 1952 he returned to Oxford to write up his Antarctic results for a doctorate, which he was awarded in 1955. In the next year his studies involved the distribution of pack-ice in the Northwest Passage on behalf of the Defence Research Board of Canada during which, in 1956, he circumnavigated Baffin Island aboard the icebreaker HMCS Labrador. While in North America he met Vilhjalmar Stefansson who introduced him to his specialist polar library. There he met Mary Fellows, who became his wife in 1960. Following this, Charles moved to Cambridge and the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) which had been established in 1920 and had become a base for both Arctic and Antarctic research. Polar specialists visit the institute from many parts of the world and Charles described how after a ‘pub-crawl’ he met a colleague and, by fortunate coincidence, this subsequently resulted in a thirty-year association with the United States Antarctic Research Program. His research began at the University of Michigan with a programme investigating the dynamics of the Ross Ice Shelf where he was involved in a transit across its northern extent. Thus, in 1960, he was back in the Antarctic at the time when international cooperation under the Antarctic Treaty was beginning. The work involved extensive field travelling and investigation of some of Antarctica's largest glaciers. During this he was a member of a party which visited Roald Amundsen's cairn on Mount Betty, left in 1912. In 1963, after three Antarctic seasons, he moved from the University of Michigan back to Cambridge with a research appointment with SPRI, an association which continued for the rest of his life. By arrangement with the Institute, the Royal Society and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), from 1963 to 1965, under the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty, he was the British exchange scientist with the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions. There he wintered at Novolazarevskaya station, again studying glacial movements. During this time he also learnt Russian as a fourth language, having already become proficient in Norwegian and Swedish. On return to Britain he worked with the radio-echo sounding programme of SPRI surveying the depths of the Antarctic ice-sheet. Field testing in Ellesmere Island developed the technique of ‘radio-glaciology’. In 1967 Charles boarded the BAS ship, RRS John Biscoe, and landed at the United States ‘Palmer’ station from where he continued to the BAS base ‘Adelaide’ by aircraft. This was the base for a series of flight tracks measuring the ice depth to bedrock, the beginning of a programme which eventually covered the entire continent with cooperation from United States and several other national Antarctic expeditions. During the 1967–68 summer he made a return visit to the Ross Sea region, again with the United States Antarctic Research Program based at ‘McMurdo’ station. This was the base for continuing radio-echo surveys of the tributary glaciers of the Ross Ice Shelf. In 1969 he was appointed as observer during the voyage of Manhattan, a 155 000 tonne displacement ice-strengthened oil tanker, experimentally assessing the use of the Northwest Passage for export of Alaskan crude oil. Many data were acquired but logistic and economic aspects were such that a pipeline across Alaska was built as the preferred alternative. Observations on sea ice continued in 1971 but from another aspect. Charles was invited aboard HMS Dreadnought, a nuclear powered submarine of the Royal Navy. The voyage, the first of a British submarine to the North Pole, was the beginning of naval cooperation with SPRI in conducting comprehensive research in frozen seas. On 3 March 1971 the submarine surfaced and Charles stood at the North Pole for the first time. This was during the winter twilight with a clear sky and three-quarter Moon at −37°C. Later that summer he was again in the Arctic involved with experimental airborne radio-echo surveys over Greenland, Ellesmere Island and the Arctic Ocean. The base for these flights was the United States' station in Thule. The radio-echo system was in use again in the 1971–72 austral summer but this time during a series of traverses working from the Adelaide Island base of BAS. Results from these surveys gave early indications of substantial depletion of several major ice shelves as well as contributing data to the International Hydrological Decade. In 1974 he was appointed as the head of the Earth Sciences Division of the BAS while still based in SPRI. In 1976 all divisions of BAS came together in a new headquarters building on the outskirts of Cambridge. He held this post, responsible for Antarctic glaciology, geophysics and geology, until retiring in 1986. In early 1975 Charles was flying near the Ellsworth Mountains on radio-echo surveys during which he noticed large areas of snow-free ice which suggested possibilities of landing wheeled aircraft (he held a pilot's licence and thus knew the logistics involved). At this time, as a division head of a government scientific body, Charles noted the increase in administrative duties but made a point of continuing research. In 1978–79 he was back in McMurdo remeasuring the Byrd Glacier and comparing results from those obtained eleven years previously. In 1982 he suddenly, and unexpectedly, became involved with the Argentine invasions of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands by providing advice to the British government, including the Prime Minister. Of the many consequences was an appreciation, by government, of the importance of Antarctic regions which was accompanied by about a doubling of funds allocated to British research in the Antarctic. Among his continuing projects was an interest in reconnaissance surveys from satellite imagery, especially its application to glaciological research. This provided major contributions to the Antarctic charts of the United States Geological Survey and Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. In 1988 he completed a Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World published by the United States Geological Survey, a culmination of observations from decades of satellite imagery. During 1983 liaison with the Chilean Air Force and BAS developed which, with the possibility of wheeled landings, was to have major consequences. Radio-echo surveys also continued, much in cooperation with the United States which provided large aircraft deploying depots for the smaller, more versatile, British Twin-Otter aircraft. In 1985–86 Charles spent his last season with BAS visiting field parties to assess progress and provide assistance where necessary. He retired in November 1986. A combination of: time available after retirement, knowledge of bare ice areas, liaison with the Chilean Air Force, a colleague who was a very experienced Antarctic pilot, with an inquiry from a private enterprise (Adventure Network International) led to a major project. This was investigating the practicability of air operations to land wheeled aircraft on the snow-free ice of the Antarctic interior. The result was the beginning of summer commercial flights from Punta Arenas to a base camp at Patriot Hills, high on the ice-sheet continuing to the South Pole, vicinity of Mount Vinson (Antarctica's highest peak), and elsewhere. This was very significant in opening the Antarctic interior to mountaineers, skiers, other sportsmen, tourists, and various non-governmental visitors. Charles always travelled widely beyond both polar regions lecturing at international meetings, universities and other specialised organisations throughout the world. Privately many of his excursions were to other glaciated parts of the world including much of Russia, the Himalaya and Tibet. He wrote four autobiographical books. Each of these is well illustrated from the extensive catalogued collection of photographic material he had accumulated, and bequeathed to SPRI. In 1996 he provided a video-tape contribution to the SPRI oral history programme. Subsequently, in 2010, he was interviewed in the Oral History of British Science project of the British Library providing 83 minutes of detailed reminiscences. The SPRI library records 135 of his publications which vary from technical and scientific to historical and personal. The archives and museum have also been enhanced by material he has donated. Academically and socially SPRI also benefited from his advice and guidance for many students, visiting scholars, numerous other visitors, and members of staff. Such an active life led to membership of many organizations dealing with polar and associated subjects, often as a committee member and occasionally as president. These include: American Geographical Society, American Polar Society, Antarctic Club (President 1998), Antarctic Heritage Trust (U.K.), Arctic Club (President 2007), Arctic Association of North America, British Antarctic Survey Club, Falkland Islands Association, Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute, Geographical Club, International Commission on Snow and Ice, International Glaciological Society (President 1963–66 and 1981–84), James Caird Society, Old Antarctic Explorers Association, Royal Geographical Society, South Georgia Association (President 2007–12), and the Trans-Antarctic Association. Charles' awards include the Norwegian Medal of Merit (1952), Polar Medal (1956), the Retzius Medal of Sweden (1966), the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1971), and The Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (1990). In 2013 he was decorated with the MBE. His name is commemorated by six toponyms in Australian, British, New Zealand, and Norwegian regions of Antarctica (four being ‘Swithinbank’ features and two for ‘Charles’). He married, in 1960, Mary Fellows (née Stewart), with whom he had a daughter and a son, and adopted her daughter from a previous marriage. At the conclusion of his autobiography 40 Years on Ice he wrote: I have heard it said that today, with easier access to high latitudes, the challenge has gone out of polar fieldwork. Those who believe it should stay at home – to avoid being disillusioned.