Fuchs, Sir Vivian Ernest

▪ 2000

“Bunny” 

      British explorer (b. Feb. 11, 1908, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Eng.—d. Nov. 11, 1999, Cambridge, Eng.), led the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the journey that in 1957–58 conquered what was considered exploration's final great challenge, the first surface crossing of the Antarctic. In 99 days the 12-member team covered nearly 4,000 km (2,500 mi), conducting scientific research that ascertained the existence of a continental landmass under the polar ice cap. Fuchs discovered his appetite for adventurous travel when in 1929, during his undergraduate days at St. John's College, Cambridge, he visited Greenland with James Wordie, his tutor, who had been senior scientist on Ernest Henry Shackleton's historic 1914–16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition aboard the Endurance. In 1931–32 Fuchs accompanied Louis Leakey on an expedition to East Africa, and he made several additional African expeditions during the '30s. He was awarded a Ph.D. (1935) in geology from Cambridge. In 1947, after military service in World War II, Fuchs became head of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. While carrying out his work there, he developed the interests that led to the expedition across the Antarctic. On the latter part of that expedition, Fuchs was accompanied by a group led by Sir Edmund Hillary. The two met up at the South Pole after Hillary beat Fuchs there by 15 days in what had been played up in the press as a race. Fuchs was knighted in 1958, three days after he arrived home from the expedition, and later that year he and Hillary published an account of the trip, The Crossing of Antarctica. From 1958 to 1973 Fuchs served as director of the British Antarctic Survey (known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey until 1962), and in 1974 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Among the many societies in which he was active was the Royal Geographical Society, which he served as president from 1982 to 1984, and his books included Of Ice and Men (1982), about the British Antarctic Survey, and his autobiography, A Time to Speak (1990). Two geographic features in the Antarctic were named in Fuchs's honour, Fuchs Ice Piedmont on Adelaide Island and Fuchs Snow Dome in the Shackleton Range.

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▪ British explorer and geologist

born February 11, 1908, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, England

died November 11, 1999, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

      English geologist and explorer who led the historic British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1957–58.

      In 1929 and 1930–31 Fuchs participated in expeditions to East Greenland and the East African (Africa) lakes, respectively, serving as a geologist. Between 1933 and 1934 he led the Lake Rudolf–Rift Valley Expedition that surveyed 40,000 square miles (104,500 square km) of the Ethiopia–Kenya region. Fuchs's thesis on the tectonics (i.e., crustal structure) of the Rift Valley earned him a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Cambridge in 1935.

      Selected to head the Falkland Islands Dependencies Surveys in 1947, Fuchs became interested in Antarctica. In 1958 his 12-man party completed the first land journey across Antarctica, enduring severe hardships to travel 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the Filchner Ice Shelf to McMurdo Sound in 99 days. The findings of the expedition confirmed earlier theories that a single continental landmass exists beneath the Antarctic polar ice sheet. With Sir Edmund Hillary (Hillary, Sir Edmund), the New Zealand explorer, he coauthored the book The Crossing of Antarctica (1958). Fuchs later ran the British Antarctic Survey (1958–73), and in 1990 his autobiography, A Time to Speak, was published. He was knighted in 1958.

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