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SCAR Circular no 738               

Dear Sir

Obituary - Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs

I am sure that members of SCAR will be saddened to hear of the recent death of Sir Vivian Fuchs, who passed away on 11 November 1999 in Cambridge.

I enclose some details of the life of the famous explorer for your information; this obituary will also be posted on the SCAR website. Any messages of condolences to Eleanor, Lady Fuchs may be sent to the SCAR Secretariat for forwarding.

Yours faithfully

P D Clarkson

Vivian Ernest Fuchs
1908-1999

Vivian Fuchs was born on 11 February 1908 and after private schooling entered St John's College, Cambridge. There he studied geology and came to know Sir James Wordie who had been in the Antarctic with both Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton. Fuchs led a university expedition to Greenland in the late 1920s and so started his polar career, although it was to be several years before he continued. After graduating in geology he began a research degree at Cambridge doing field work in the African Rift Valley, around Lake Rudolph, during the 1930s. The scientific research involved a great deal of exploration and also brought him into contact with the eminent anthropologist Louis Leakey who did so much to unravel the origins of early Man. The Second World War disrupted his career; he served with distinction as a Major in the British Army.

In the later stages of the war the British Government established Operation Tabarin in the Antarctic Peninsula region to strengthen British territorial claims. This operation became civilian after the war. In 1947 Fuchs was appointed Base Leader at Stonington Island and in overall command of British bases in the Antarctic. Ice conditions prevented the relief of the base during the 1948-49 summer and the eleven men had to spend an additional unplanned winter in the Antarctic. It was during a sledging journey along George VI Sound, between the Antarctic Peninsula and Alexander Island, that Fuchs conceived the idea of crossing the Antarctic continent with tractors, a modern attempt to achieve what Sir Ernest Shackleton had failed to accomplish some 35 years earlier. On his return from the Antarctic, Fuchs was appointed Director of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, later re-named the British Antarctic Survey.

In 1955 preparations began for the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition and Fuchs had to resign temporarily as Director of the Survey when his place was taken by Sir Raymond Priestley, another Antarctic veteran who had been a geologist with Shackleton in 1907-09 and with Scott in 1910-12. The expedition's base "Shackleton" was established on the Filchner Ice Shelf from where the main crossing party would start the trans-continental journey. On the other side of the continent a support party, led by Sir Edmund Hillary, would lay depots of food and fuel from Ross Island to the polar plateau. Fuchs successfully completed the crossing of the continent in just 99 days. On his arrival at Scott Base it was announced that Her Majesty the Queen had graciously honoured Fuchs with a knighthood in recognition of the expedition's achievement.

He attended many SCAR meetings over the years, as the British representative to the Working Group on Logistics, and as an adviser at the Delegates Meeting. His long and effective experience as an administrator of polar science in Britain was recognized by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974.

After the expedition Sir Vivian continued as Director of the British Antarctic Survey until his retirement in 1973. He continued an active life, playing squash into his 80s, and he maintained his interest in polar matters. He was President of various societies connected with polar and geographical exploration; he encouraged young people to take part in expeditions, and was connected with several charities supporting exploration. Many expeditions asked him to act as their patron and he always obliged. A severe stroke in 1997 left him partially paralysed but he fought against it with characteristic determination. He died on 11 November 1999, aged 91. He will be remembered as one of the great polar explorers of the twentieth century.