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Z - F I D S N E W S L E T T E R No. 58 27 Oct 2025
Editor: Andy Smith (email andy@zfids.org.uk)
Website: www.zfids.org.uk
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Z-70
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This event, which celebrates 70 years since the founding of the base in
1956, follows on from the successful Z50 and Z60 events and will be
held at the same hotel in central Northampton on the weekend of 9-11
October 2026, less than a year away. So far 67 Fids have booked online
for themselves and 29 guests. The booking form and other information
may be found on the ZFids website. Click on "Z70" on the home page.
The organising committee have arranged a great programme, and of course
it will be an excellent opportunity to reconnect with old colleagues.
Why not guarantee your place by booking today? Deposits are fully
refundable until the end of the year. For any queries, email Tony
Wincott on z70event@gmail.com or text / call 07702 055601.
News about Halley
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From Dan McKenzie - Halley Station Leader
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[Many thanks to Dan for this report, dated 20 October 2025.]
As I write this latest update, we are one week away from deploying the
open-up team to Halley via Cape Town and Wolfsfang.
The summer team have all met and been acquainted at PDT [pre-deployment
training] now and are raring to go down around the middle of November.
I was very pleased with what I saw with our Halley team at conference
this year, a great mixture of new and experienced. From the looks of
things, the station is in safe hands and I have very high hopes.
A lot has changed in the last ten years or so- and open-up/ shutdown of
the station due to the ongoing pause in manned winters is probably the
biggest change of all; in past seasons the vehicles were maintained and
kept ticking over through the winter, and the wintering team would be
now preparing the station for the summer season. Nowadays that is left
up to the 5 (or in this year's case 8) members of the early input team.
Which picks up where we left it last February as the first sunsets were
setting.
We already up to this point have around twice as much snow as we did at
the end of last season's winter, which means we will need to plan and
execute a double raise of the modules. It is also our second time in
two years doing an ice shelf ship relief, with all the planning and
recce and thought that goes into that. The Drewry is being modernised-
with rooms going down to double occupancy instead of four and fire
safety being brought into line with UK regs, which will require lots of
work from the estates team after the ship has brought its cargo. With
other essential science work going on all season around the base and
off station.
I'd like to give an honourable mention here to our well-loved Vehicles
manager Martin Bell, who has been handing over this summer to our new
vehicles manager Connor Deery. Martin has given many years of his life
to BAS, and I know the entire team are grateful to him for his work,
experience and contributions to the base and station over the years.
He will be missed.
Well, I've probably written a bit much here- I'll send out an update
during the season. Hopefully all goes off without a hitch!
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Sadly, there are several deaths to report.
Bert Brooker
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Bert was the doctor in 1958, the second year of the Royal Society IGY
Expedition main phase. He replaced Robin Smart who was the leader and
MO in 1957 but was invalided home at the end of that year following an
injury. Bert died on 19 December, 2024 according to information from
Dawn Burton, widow the late Jim Burton (Met, geophysics) who wintered
in 1957 and 1958. Dawn says "I think it very probable that there is now
only one member of that party still alive - David Harrison".
Incidentally David will be coming to Z70 and says "Last remaining
member of the IGY expedition! Planning to bring photos and clothing
from expedition." That should be interesting.
Tony Baker
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Tony died on 5 April 2025 at his care home. His condition had been
gradually worsening over the previous few months. Tony was the
wintering carpenter in 1964, 1965 and 1967. In 1967 he was one of the
construction team that built Halley II (Grillage Village). In 1964 he
spent 205 days in the field at the Totton Mountains. In 2010 he was
interviewed for the British Antarctic Oral History Project and a link
to the interview may be found on any of the relevant year pages on the
ZFids website.
Eric Harvey
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Eric also died 5 April 2025, in Hull Royal Infirmary. Eric was the
wintering doctor in 1975. Kenn Back says "A winter appendicectomy was
narrowly averted when the patient responded to heavy doses of
antibiotics. Doctor Eric Harvey was greatly relieved, naturally.
However, some other base members were actually looking forward to a bit
of sealing-knife surgery, and were quite disappointed when the patient
recovered." On 14 September 1975, recalls Clive Sweetingham, "Jack
Temple, Andy Allman and Eric descended into the bog to break away the
"turdicles". They chipped away the two main turdicles. Not a pleasant
job, although Andy seemed to enjoy it, and Eric, of course filmed the
whole bloody episode." More details on the 1975 Zfids webpage.
Iain Levack
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Iain ("Leeches") Levack died peacefully in a care home on 3 June 2025.
Ken Lax says "Iain was an excellent base member and attended all the
1977 reunions". He also says Iain was a Scottish guy, extremely tough.
He was a member of the SAS as a Territorial, and has done several tours
at Camp Bastion, as well as a 6-month stint as a doctor on Tristan da
Cunha. While on base he injured himself abseiling 40 ft down an old
shaft in winter. He had done it in summer but was warned not to try it
in winter as the rope would be icy. He did, and it was!
Alan ("Dad") Etchells
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Dad passed away peacefully on 11 June 2025 in his nursing home, aged 97.
He was fondly regarded by all Fids who knew him. He was a tractor
mechanic and wintered at Halley 4 times (1963, 1964, 1967 and 1968),
one of only 3 men to do so (the others being Bill Bellchambers and
Milne Samuel). He also wintered at King Edward Point, South Georgia as
diesel mechanic in 1970. In 1968 he led an overland tractor journey to
the Shackleton Mountains. and established a large depot ("Depot Dad")
for use by a subsequent geological survey team. His funeral in Wrexham
on 2nd July was attended by about 30 Fids who travelled from all over
the country to attend. In the months before he died, Allan Wearden
visited him regularly in his care home and reported back to members of
the BAS Club. Dad was interviewed for the British Antarctic Oral
History Project and a link to the interview may be found on any of the
relevant year pages on the ZFids website.
Alan Precious
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Alan died on 9 Sep 2025 aged 99. He was a Met man in 1961 at Halley.
Before that he wintered at Hope Bay and Admiralty Bay. He was a member
of the team, travelling by dog sledge, which found a new route from the
Brunt Ice Shelf onto the inland ice. Alan was interviewed for the
British Antarctic Oral History Project and a link to the interview may
be found on the 1961 pages of the ZFids website.
Graham Chambers
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Graham Chambers (Met man at Halley Bay 1974 and 1975) passed away on
17th September 2025. He died peacefully in hospital of heart failure
and pulmonary oedema. He leaves his wife Victoria and two children,
Malcolm and Penny. In 2016 Graham published ‘Many are Cold but Few are
Frozen: Plain tales from Antarctica’, a collection of short stories
from his time at Halley, full of amusing anecdotes. He was involved in
digging up the Lansing Snowplane. After it was made operational again,
he recalls that ski-joring behind it was in zero visibility owing to
the snow blown back from it. By chance he was witness to the first
visit of a woman to Halley, and took a picture of it. She was the new
wife of the Captain of the Bransfield and they were on their honeymoon.
On the last evening before the ship sailed, Tom and Ella with three
others, took a stroll on the ice, still all in evening dress! The
resulting picture is on the ZFids website. Look in the Picture Index
under "Woman visitor, first". Graham is also the first person known to
have "streaked" at Halley, running 100 yards wearing nothing but boots,
while the temperature was at a record low of -55.3 C.
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Ozone hole discovery anniversary
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This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Ozone Hole discovered by
Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin using many years of
data from the Dobson ozone spectrophotometer at Halley. Continuous
ozone observations began in 1956, the year the base was established.
For more details, see the BAS Press Release of 13th May 2025.
Jeremy Bailey recording
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Jeremy Bailey was one of the three men lost in the 1965 crevasse
accident. A couple of months before he left for Antarctica in 1964, he
recorded a conversation with family friends Bill and Marjorie
Pilkington. Permission has been obtained to publish the recording on
the ZFids website. There is a link on the 1965 ZFids web page to the
recording which lasts for 24 minutes.
Neddy Brind
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An email was received from Ben Bishop, grandson of "Neddy" Brind who
was Radar Technician in 1963. Ben wanted to find out about Neddy's work
in Antarctica, but unfortunately Neddy now had severe dementia. Ben
wanted to get in touch with a fellow winterer, Paul Whiteemna, which I
was able to facilitate.
Tony Jackson's pictures
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Tony was wintering electrician in 1972. He has worked through all the
pictures he took at Halley that year and put together a remarkable set
of 162 photos documenting life at Halley Bay in 1972. The set includes
the various rooms on base, the people, dogs (and cat), vehicles and
some events (e.g. party nights, sports day, and the renovation of the
Halley-I piano). While obviously most relevant to the 1972 wintering
party, I think most of the pictures will be of interest to anybody who
spend time at Halley II.
Mystery sledging object
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Hwfa Jones (Met man 1970 and 1971) has sent in a picture of something
he found in an old sledging box but never saw it in use at Halley. He
asks if could an example of the mysterious sledging 'Dongler' as used
on the Peninsula bases. It dates from the mid-1960s and perhaps was
used to the Tottan Mountains. The picture has been uploaded to the
ZFids website (link on the 1970 page or Latest Additions). If anyone
has any information, get in touch.
British Antarctic Oral History Project
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All the 272 Oral History interviews being published have now
been transcribed by our team of volunteers. 264 of these have been
published on the BAS Club website (link on the Zfids home page).
You don't need to be a BAS Club member to see them. There are
links on the Z-Fids website to the interviews featuring Halley
people (see the General Index under Oral history recordings). The
remaining interviews are awaiting approval before they can be
published.
Here are a couple of extracts from the interviews:
Tony Baker (Carpenter 1964, 65, 67): "The Nightriders"
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"People were disgruntled; and then the next year’s field programme was
upsetting folk. It was not proposed to do what those on base felt
should be done. They were directed in different directions. I do not
know why to be honest. I could not tell you the reasons for this but
these directions came from Head Office, so it upset people. That was
my understanding of it anyway. I never went into anything really very
deeply. I tried to keep myself to myself in those things. But I was a
member of the, I think they called them the "Nightriders", the
dissidents. We used to gather in the kitchen and I would make a big pan
of curry and everybody would tuck into this curry and drink. If there
was any beer knocking around, they would drink beer, otherwise it would
be coffee."
NERC copyright, reproduced courtesy of BAS Archives Service.
Archives ref AD6/24/1/74.
Alan Etchells (Tractor Mechanic 1963, 64, 67, 68): Muskeg tractors
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"I worked on Muskeg tractors mainly. I had not seen one before, though
I had seen a picture. There was nothing complicated about it really.
A small tracked vehicle with a Chrysler industrial engine in it,
steered by two handles. It's a bit awkward steering because there's no
brake on them, just ... There was a brake actually; there was no clutch
on it. So as soon as you pulled the handle back to brake, you lost
power. So it was a bit of a job to drive them. There's no coasting. You
are powered all the time. We had four I think at the time. Two new ones
went in on the Kista Dan with us, which had been built in Totton,
Southampton, with big cabs on which we modified, we got to early.
That's part of being down there: modify everything that comes in. We
put two bunks on. The cabs were that big that they were just a waste of
space, so we built two bunks behind the driver's seat, and the drive
and his mate slept in there, did their cooking and all sorts in, just
lived in the cab, rather than put a tent up."
NERC copyright, reproduced courtesy of BAS Archives Service.
Archives ref AD6/24/1/35.
Many thanks to all contributors to this Newsletter.
The British Antarctic Survey Club
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The Club is now sponsoring the Z-Fids website and if you are not already
a member, I would urge you to consider joining. There is a membership
application form accessible from the home page of the Club's website:
www.basclub.org
Registrations and email updates
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As usual this newsletter is being sent out by email only, to 400
people. If you are on email but have not received it by that route,
please register or re-register on the website (links on the home
page). 437 people have now registered on Z-fids. If you have, your
name will be shown as a link on the appropriate year page(s). If you
wish to be removed from the mailing list, let me know by email.
Andy
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