Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

Bowman and so ultimately had no choice but to go outside the system in order to
protect my organisation and implement government policy as required. I drew moral
support from the Foreign Office, but little more and so decided that I must do some
lobbying at the highest level. People with the right contacts were found to put the
Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher "in the picture". She was disturbed - I saw some of the
correspondence - and a Cabinet Office Committee was set up under the
Chairmanship of Christopher Malaby, later the UK Ambassador to France. This was
a battleground between the Foreign Office and the Department of Education and
Science. I was involved in the first meeting and made my position clear; I did not
support the NERC case and NERC did not invite me to join their delegation for the
later meetings! However, it was enough and eventually, a month or so before I
retired, the size of the whole BAS budget (baseline and extra) was set and ring-fenced
at £12.3 million. Also it was agreed that the former rules for funding capital projects
would be reinstated.
Between l983 and April l987 we had initiated a number of major capital projects:
A large addition to the Cambridge laboratories and other facilities was almost
complete; a fourth Twin Otter aircraft had been ordered; work had been done on the
case for a larger aircraft; a hard airstrip and hanger at Rothera Point had been
designed and the initial work carried out by a Canadian company; a radical new
design for a replacement of the Halley Station was in the final stages, with a German
Company as consultants (this was to be in the form of large platforms kept above the
surface by hydraulic jacks); and the initial design concept for a ship to replace the
RRS John Biscoe had reached an advanced stage, employing a Finnish company as
consultants. Staff had increased as planned, by about a hundred, to 425.
So when I retired I was able to do so knowing that I had left BAS in a strong
position, with an expanded and ring-fenced budget. It was a position that it was to
maintain for the next decade, the only government research organisation with this
status. [check].
In February l987 at a farewell party on Signy Island became seriously ill with
gallstone condition. It was accurately diagnosed by Nelson Norman (Professor of
Surgery, Aberdeen University), who was sharing my cabin, and confirmed at
Military Hospital, Stanley, Falkland Islands.
Retired from BAS on 30 April. BAS's pre-eminence in Antarctic affairs was
largely due to my contribution. Just before I retired there was a Visiting Group from
NERC to BAS (a "top-level inspection") which reported in l986. The Group was
"impressed with what it saw of the overall organisation of BAS for which the
Director, with his unique combination of scientific, management and personal
qualities must take great credit." The Report said that the Group had been
"impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm of the BAS staff, the quality of the
science, and the effectiveness of the logistic support operation. BAS has attained a
justifiably high international reputation both for its science and its expertise in
Antarctic operations and was second to none in giving value for money." At about
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