The Royal Society Antarctic expedition

Abstract

In 1953 the International Council of Scientific Unions (I.C.S.U.) appointed a committee (C.S.A.G.I.) under the presidency of Professor S. Chapman, F. R.S., to organize a programme of international scientific co-operation for making simultaneous physical measurements over the whole Earth during the eighteen months July 1957 to December 1958. The scheme is known as the ‘International Geophysical Year’ (I.G.Y.) and as the United Kingdom representative in international scientific affairs, the Royal Society has appointed a National Committee to organize the British contribution to the programme. The I.G.Y. is the direct descendent of two earlier similar schemes known as the First and Second International Polar Years, organized in 1882 and 1932. The I.G.Y. is concerned with measurements over the whole globe, but because of inaccessibility the making of measurements on the Antarctic continent has to be planned well in advance. The Royal Society is contributing to the Antarctic studies by sending an expedition to set up a research station on the coast of the Weddell Sea. The site for the station, being in the British Sector of Antarctica, comes within the jurisdiction of H.E. The Governor of the Falkland Islands and much help has been given by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, and the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations have acted as the Royal Society agents in the ordering of stores and equipment. The advance party is led by Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander David Dalgliesh, R.N., and the three scientists are Major G. E. Watson, R.E.M.E., an electronic engineer lent by the War Office, Dr Stanley Evans, a radioastronomer from the Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, Manchester University, and D. W. S. Limbert of the Meteorological Office, Harrow. Other members include K. E. C. Powell as the diesel mechanic and Captain R. Dalgliesh, brother of the expedition commander, as tractor driver, together with J. E. Raymond and his brother-in-law D. Prior as carpenters. The wireless operator is Charles Le Feuvre and Commissioned Boatswain G. R. Lush, R.N. acts as a general handyman.