Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson
1914 portrait
Born	5 May 1882 Bradford, Yorkshire
Died	14 October 1958
Education	University of Sydney
Occupation	Explorer, Geologist
Spouse	Paquita Delprat

Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian Antarctic explorer and geologist. With Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, Mawson was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Early life: first expedition to Antarctica

Douglas Mawson was born in 1882 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England, the second son of Robert Ellis Mawson, a cloth merchant from a farming background, and his wife Margaret Ann, née Moore, from the Isle of Man. The family immigrated to Rooty Hill, New South Wales, Australia in 1884. He was educated at Fort Street High School and the University of Sydney, where he gained degrees in mining engineering and science. After working as a junior demonstrator in chemistry, he was appointed geologist to an expedition to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) in 1903; his report The geology of the New Hebrides, was one of the first major geological works of Melanesia. Also that year he published a geological paper on Mittagong, New South Wales. His major influences in his geological career were Professor Edgeworth David and Professor Archibald Liversidge. He then became a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1905.^[1] He identified and first described the mineral Davidite, named for Edgeworth David. In 1907, Mawson joined the British Antarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton as an expedition geologist. With his mentor and fellow geologist, Edgeworth David, he was on the first ascent of Mount Erebus. Later, he was a member of the first team to reach the South Magnetic Pole, assuming the leadership of the party from David on their perilous return.

Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expedition

Mawson turned down an invitation to join Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1910; Australian geologist Griffith Taylor went instead. Mawson chose to lead his own expedition, the Australian Antarctic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land, the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at the time was almost entirely unexplored. The objectives were to carry out geographical exploration and scientific studies, including visiting the South Magnetic Pole. The expedition, using the ship Aurora commanded by Captain John King Davis, landed at Cape Denison on Commonwealth Bay on 8 January 1912 and established the Main Base. A second camp was located to the west on the ice shelf in Queen Mary Land. Cape Denison proved to be unrelentingly windy, the average wind speed for the entire year was about 50 mph (80 km/h). They built a hut on the rocky cape and wintered through nearly constant blizzards.

Caricature by Sir David Low

Mawson's exploration program was carried out by five parties from the Main Base and two from the Western Base. Mawson's team, which was to trek east, consisted of Xavier Mertz, Lieutenant B. E. S. Ninnis and himself. Nearing the end of this team's trek, Ninnis, his dog team and sledge with most of the provisions fell through a crevasse and were lost. Mawson and Mertz turned back immediately. Mertz died during the return journey and Mawson continued alone. On one occasion during his return trip to the Main Base, he fell through the lid of a crevasse and was saved only by his sledge wedging itself into the ice above him. When he finally made it back to Cape Denison, the ship Aurora had left only a few hours before. Mawson, and six men who had remained behind to look for him, wintered a second year until December 1913. In Mawson's book, Home of the Blizzard, he describes his experiences. His party, and those at the Western Base, had explored large areas of the Antarctic coast, describing its geology, biology and meteorology, and more closely defining the location of the south magnetic pole.

Later life

On his return, he married Paquita Delprat and was knighted, but the public took little interest in his achievements, being completely taken up with the Scott disaster and the outbreak of World War I. Mawson served in the war as a Major in the British Ministry of Munitions. Returning to Adelaide he pursued his academic studies, taking further expeditions abroad, including a joint British, Australian and New Zealand expedition to the Antarctic in 1929–1931. The work done by the expedition led to the formation of the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1936. He also spent much of his time researching the geology of the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Upon his retirement from teaching in 1952 he was made Emeritus Professor. He died at his Brighton home on 14 October 1958 from cerebral haemorrhage.^[2] He was 76 years old. His image appeared from 1984-1996 on the Australian paper one hundred dollar note. Also, Mawson Peak (Heard Island), Mawson Station (Antarctica), Dorsa Mawson (Mare Fecunditatis), the geology building on the main University of Adelaide campus, suburbs in Canberra and Adelaide, a South Australian TAFE institute, and the main street of Meadows, South Australia are named after him and the Mawson Collection of Antarctic exploration artefacts is on permanent display at the South Australian Museum. Mawson's trek is captured in the Channel 4 programme, When Hell Freezes, broadcast in the UK in November 2007.

See also

• Mawson's Huts
• Australasian Antarctic Expedition
• Mawson Plateau

References

• Lennard Bickel, Mawson's Will ISBN 978-1-58642-000-0
• F. J. Jacka, 'Mawson, Sir Douglas (1882 - 1958)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, MUP, 1986, pp 454-457.

External links

• Hurley, Frank Collection of Photographic Prints. Images of Mawson Expedition 1911-14 held at Pictures Branch, National Library of Australia, Canberra