Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

especially albatrosses and large numbers were banded for later study of age-specific
[processes]. From 1959 the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) supplied rings and
kept FIDS bird ringing records.
In 1957-58 Professor J B “Jim” Cragg of Durham University visited BAS bases
and advised that Signy Island should become the principal biological research
station. In 1958 the need to coordinate biological research was raised in the FID
Scientific Committee and next year it was agreed that when accommodation became
available Queen Mary College, London University, where Professor J E ‘Eric’ Smith
(who had been my supervisor in Zoology at Cambridge), held the chair of Zoology,
should house a FIDS Biological Unit. In 1959 Eric Smith on behalf of the British
National Committee on the Antarctic (BNCAR) assessed the scientific support in the
country for a permanent biological station in the Antarctic. In 1960 an ad hoc
committee met in London under Eric Smith’s chairmanship; its recommendation that
Signy Island become the permanent site for the principal biological station, was
approved by the Scientific Committee. I was a member of the ad hoc committee and
strongly pushed the view that Signy was the ideal location. Dr M W ‘Martin’
Holdgate, Deputy Director of Research Scott Polar Research Institute was heavily
involved at this time in the programme planning and helping to establish
laboratories. .
In 1961 two biological laboratories were equipped at Signy Island, and in 1963 a
Biological Unit was officially established at Queen Mary College on 1 July. It was
housed at 291 Bancroft Road, Mile End Road, London E.1, in a converted terraced
house – a not very suitable site – until October, when it moved to 11 Lansdowne
Road. Martin Holdgate was appointed Senior Biologist, responsible to the Director,
BAS, but paid by the University as a Senior Research fellow. He had organised a
survey of the South Shetland Islands and had written up the results of other surveys
and field research. Dr S W G ‘Stanley’ Greene, Birmingham University, was advising
on botanical work from 1958 and in 1963 he was appointed Research Supervisor,
under Martin Holdgate, but continued to be based at Birmingham University.
In 1963/64 a new laboratory was built at Signy, a two-storey prefabricated
sectional building made of plastic panels, which naturally became known as ‘the
Plastic Palace’. Martin Holdgate left in December 1965 [’66 in Who’s Who] to become
Deputy Director (Research) of the Nature Conservancy, 1966-70. Later he was
Director of the Central Unit on Environmental Pollution, Director of the NERC
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, and so on to other demanding posts. Martin was
succeeded by Dr Ted Smith, who had earlier been head of the NERC Seals Research
Unit and his main research interests lay in the UK – but he had published little and
now he had moved into the world of music. Later he moved to Australia as Head of
Mammals at the Taronga Zoological Gardens, Sydney.
Dr P J ‘Peter’ Tilbrook, who worked on Antarctic Collembola, small terrestrial
mites, was the interim head of the unit until E A ‘Ted’ Smith, formerly of the Nature
Conservancy, was appointed Senior Biologist from 1 November. 1966. Soon after
NERC undertook a review of the Biological Unit and concluded in 1967 that the
premises at Queen Mary College were unsuitable, as had been evident for some time.
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