Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

geographical exploration to become a front-rank Antarctic research organisation. By
the time of his retirement the Survey was one of the larger bodies in the NERC; its
organisation, its efficiency and its cost-effectiveness in an expensive field of
endeavour, were the envy of most other countries engaged in such work. In 1958
there were 26 field staff in FIDS and the budget was c. £250,000, (equivalent to about
£3.4 million at current prices, including the ships’ running costs. When he returned
from TAE in 1958 there were 54 scientific and technical field staff and 12 bases. By
1970-71 the total complement wintering in the Antarctic was 92, included 45
scientists, surveyors, meteorologists. By 1973 the permanent UK staff totalled 53, a
number that was augmented each summer by the influx of contract staff being
trained prior to Antarctic service, others writing up their results and additional
secretarial staff. On his retirement from BAS in 1973 the total staff was some 350 and
the annual budget about £1.5 million (equivalent to about £10.6 million today).
At times the survival of the Survey had been in doubt, but he successfully led
the organisation through the transition from the aftermath of the ‘heroic age’ of polar
research, through the change from static observatory science and essentially
geographical exploration, towards the modern era of global science, when the
Antarctic is increasingly seen as a key component in understanding global
environmental problems. All this had come about through the energy and
determination of Sir Vivian, helped by the eminence he had achieved as a result of
the TAE. After the peak of achievement in l958 he made no more lengthy field
expeditions, but made regular Antarctic field visits, of a couple of months, every 2-3
years.
But the organisation of the science still left much to be desired. The Survey was
a collection of isolated units, whose main connections were with the University
Departments or Governments Laboratories they were associated with, rather than
their colleagues within BAS. The common ground was limited to an annual briefing
conference for new recruits, to time spent together on the ships travelling to and
from the Antarctic field operations. Even in the southern summer communications
between BAS HQ (in London) and the scientific units (scattered around Britain) and
the Antarctic stations and ships were very limited. In winter communications with
the Antarctic deteriorated as the Ionosphere fluctuated and affected radio
communications.
In the UK it had long been desirable to bring together the head office and
numerous BAS research groups, which were scattered around the country, and the
transfer of BAS to Cambridge was approved. In 1972 NERC agreed a site and
sufficient funding; Planning Permission was granted in 1973, and work on the BAS
HQ complex was begun.
So I moved back to Antarctic research, first as Head of the Life Sciences Division
of the British Antarctic Survey (l969-73) and then as Director (l973-87).
Administration, logistics, management and politics of this large government institute
(including involvement in the Falklands War), took up much of my time, but I
resumed my research on Antarctic seals, mainly on the world's most abundant seal,
the crabeater seal. Again I developed a reliable method of age determination and
studied its population ecology, growth, age and reproduction. I made comparative
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