The Committee of the South Georgia Association has appointed Mrs Philippa Foster Back CBE to be its new Chairman in succession to Professor David Drewry, who is retiring.
Mrs Foster Back has a distinguished career in finance and business and numerous Polar connections. She is currently Chairman of the Antarctic Place-names Committee and has formerly chaired the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute (FoSPRI), the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the South Georgia Heritage Trust. From 2001 to 2020 she was Director of the Institute of Business Ethics.
The President of the SGA, David Tatham, said: “We are delighted that Mrs Foster Back has agreed to become our new Chairman. She has a distinguished career in business and finance and many Antarctic connections. At the same time we are deeply grateful to Professor Drewry who has been our Chairman for fourteen years during which the activities of the Association have expanded considerably. He also saw us through the Covid years when our meetings and lectures had to go on-line.”
The handover will take place at a Committee meeting on 9 October 2024
The South Georgia Association’s April 2024 Newsletter has been published.
It contains articles about:
CA Larsen
The Quest and South Georgia
Endurance Expedition Polar Medal Donation to the SG Museum.
Shackleton Memorial in Westminster Abbey
SG Cemeteries Website rehosting
SG Scientific Research 2023-24
Salisbury Plain and Bay of Isles Place Names
SGHT Update from SG
SG Government News
SGA News
Bill Block Obituary
Members’ paper copies will be in the post soon and the e-copy is online via the News menu above (If you need the password it will be emailed to members soon after publishing – it is the same as last time).
Older issues are free for anybody to download from the newsletters page of this website. (Now including last April’s Newsletter)
On 20 July 2024 the South Georgia Association and the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute will host a number of talks at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, followed by an evening Dinner at Jesus College. More details in the Events calendar.
While in Cambridge, you might be interested in a conference being run by the History of Geology Group: The History of Geological Discovery in Polar Regions, taking place on the preceding Tuesday and Wednesday. Dr Phil Stone (a South Georgia Geologist) is giving a talk about William Speirs Bruce and Spitsbergen (Svalbard). More details HERE
The South Georgia Association is delighted to announce the award of the Morag Husband Campbell medal for 2024 to Ian Hart, in recognition of his “outstanding and sustained support for the history, heritage and knowledge of South Georgia”
Shackleton Memorial Stone Dedication, Westminster Abbey, 15th February 2024
by SGA Chair David Drewry
On a surprisingly warm February afternoon the Princess Royal, accompanied by her husband, Admiral Timothy Lawrence, attend the ceremony to unveil the memorial stone in the South Cloister of Westminster Abbey to commemorate the life and deeds of Sir Ernest Shackleton CVO OBE.
The idea to have a plaque installed and for Shackleton to be thus recognised amongst the panoply of Britain’s famous explorers – James Cook, Francis Drake, Francis Chichester and Astronomer Edmond Halley, was the brainchild of Tim Winter RN and supported principally by the James Caird Society. Alexandra Shackleton was intimately involved in this initiative throughout the several years it required to obtain the necessary agreement of the Abbey and permissions.
At an early stage the SGA was invited to give its support and responded readily and positively with a donation £1500 towards the production of the Memorial Stone. This was crafted by Mr Will Davies who incorporated Connemara marble and Kilkenny limestone to reflect Shackleton’s Irish heritage (he was born in Kilkea, Co Kildare, on February 15, 1874). The stone is also inscribed with the names of Shackleton’s expedition ships and his family motto, “fortitudine vincimus” – by endurance we conquer.
The Dedication Ceremony commenced at 5pm in the Abbey with attendance by the Lord Mayor of London and HRH The Princess Royal and her husband. A number of invited guests, representing the family and a wide range of Shackleton interests, were present some having travelled from Ireland and parts of mainland Europe. David Tatham and David Drewry attend on behalf of SGA and Bob Headland was also there is a different capacity. Following the immaculately conducted Evensong, with singing by the choir of extraordinary purity that filled the massive Abbey with otherworldly sound, invited guests made their way to the South Cloister. Here the group gathered around the plaque covered by the Abbey flag. There were several short readings and tributes to Shackleton led by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle KCVO, including one read by the Hon. Alexandra ‘Zaz’ Shackleton. Thereafter the Princess Royal stepped forward to unveil the memorial plaque.
After a suitable time admiring this new addition to the Abbey, the guests made their way to the Jerusalem Chamber where at a Reception the HRH was introduced and spoke with them. Zaz Shackleton concluded this element of the Abbey ceremonies with a few words.
Later that evening there was a further and convivial gathering of the guests from the Abbey joined by other supporters, at the Royal Overseas League. It concluded what had been a most memorable and uplifting “polar” occasion.
Click a photo to see a larger version.
Memorial Plaque (courtesy Dean and Chapter of Westminster)In the Choir prior to EvensongThe hon. Alexandra Shackleton reading prior to the unveiling. Gathering in the Cloister, Princess Royal (left in light green dress).
With input from Alexandra Tataran, Archivist and Records Officer, British Antarctic Survey
It is with regret that I report on the passing of Peter William Geoffrey (Geoff) Tanner earlier this year. He played a significant role in completing the geological mapping of South Georgia in the 1970s.
Geoff was a graduate of Sheffield University in the 1960s and moved to Imperial College London to work on his doctorate. His thesis, entitled “Structural and Metamorphic history of the Kinloch Hourn area, Inverness-shire” was submitted in 1965, and established his specialisation in structural geology. Thereafter, at the University of Leeds, he worked on the Precambrian of Connemara, and in the early 1970s on the structural setting of ore bodies in the Rwenzori of Uganda. Complex geology in complex field areas!
He joined the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1973 as a Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) with the Earth Sciences Unit (Birmingham University) and in 1976 transferred to Earth Science Division (BAS Cambridge). He was responsible for coordinating the final geological mapping programmes of South Georgia, and management of BAS geologists tasked previously to do so, both in the United Kingdom and in the field.
Geoff on crevasse rescue practice in Derbyshire before going into the field on South Georgia.
He conducted field work from King Edward Point (Base M), and along the southwestern coastline during the 1973-74 and 1975-76 austral summers respectively. His team of geologists included Roger Clayton, David Macdonald, Bruce Mair, Rory Mortimore, Tim Pettigrew, Phil Stone and Bryan Storey. Under Geoff’s leadership, their field work and research, was published in a series of BAS Scientific Reports, BAS Bulletins and external geological publications. Geoff and his team finally completed the first comprehensive geological mapping of South Georgia, established the ages of the various stratigraphic and lithological units, and placed South Georgia in its regional context within the Scotia Arc and in relationship to the Antarctic Peninsula and the Southern Andes.
Geoff left BAS in 1979 and joined the Geology Department of Glasgow University, and subsequently became an Honorary Research Fellow in 1990. He suffered from Parkinson’s Disease in later life but nevertheless maintained his formidable reputation as an authority on the structural geology of the Scottish Highlands. In recognition, he was awarded the Clough Medal by the Edinburgh Geological Society in 2008. Geoff leaves his wife, Judith, a daughter and a son.
Geoff is commemorated on the map of South Georgia by Tanner Island. The APC Gazetteer states “It is the largest and westernmost of Pickersgill Islands, rising to 145 m, [and] was named after Peter William Geoffrey Tanner (b. 1938), BAS geologist, who worked on the island, 1975-76 (APC, 1979, p. 3).
TANNER , P W G, and D C REX. 1979. Timing of events in an Early Cretaceous island arc – marginal basin system on South Georgia. 1979. Geological Magazine, 116 (3), 167-179.
TANNER, P W G, STOREY B C, and D I M. MACDONALD. 1981. Geology of an Upper Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous island-are assemblage in Hauge Reef, the Pickersgill Islands and adjoining areas of South Georgia. BAS Bulletin, 53, 77-118.
STOREY, B C, and TANNER, P W G. 1982. Geochemistry of a Mesozoic island-arc assemblage and ocean floor basalts from South Georgia. BAS Bulletin, 56, 7-24.
TANNER, P W G. 1982a. Geologic Evolution of South Georgia. In: Craddock, C. (ed.) Antarctic Geoscience. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. 167-176.
TANNER, P W G. 1982b. Geology of Shag Rocks, part of a continental block on the North Scotia Ridge, and possible regional correlations. BAS Bulletin, 51, 125-136.
TANNER, P W G, and MACDONALD, D I M. 1982. Models for the deposition and simple shear deformation of a turbidite sequence in the South Georgia portion of the southern Andes back-arc basin. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 139, 739-754.
THOMSON, M R A, TANNER, P W G, and REX, D C. 1982. Fossil and radiometric evidence for ages of deposition and metamorphism of sedimentary sequences on South Georgia. In: Craddock, C. (ed.) Antarctic Geoscience. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. 177-184.
The South Georgia Heritage Trust, a charity dedicated to organising and supporting projects on the island, is holding an online fund-raising auction in partnership with the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust from 7-19 July 2023.
