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Z - F I D S N E W S L E T T E R No. 57 28 Feb 2025
Editor: Andy Smith (email andy@zfids.org.uk)
Website: www.zfids.org.uk
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News about Halley
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From Dan McKenzie - Halley Station Leader
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During the last two weeks, five of us from the team have been lucky
enough to be left behind on the base to shut it down, with the lack of
people around, the air getting colder and the sun starting to set- it
felt like the start of winter. The feeling of walking away from the
base- leaving it unmanned over the next 9 months also felt strange,
a bit sad now that the base no longer hosts a winter team. I felt
a slight sense of envy at all the wintering teams of the past who got
to experience a place and environment like that.
On reflection, it's been a good and successful season, we encountered
the usual small trials and tribulations that any team faces, but in
general we achieved a good bit of work- notable was the installation of
c5 caboose which is detecting meteors over the Earth as we speak, and
the deployment of RIFT-TIP, which was an overland field project
supplied and supported directly from Halley studying the movements and
cracks in the ice. As well as the usual data gathering from the Dobson,
the clean air sector and the electromagnetic quiet area.
Most importantly this season, good work was done on the microturbine to
get it back to where we want it after it broke down last winter, and
the station will be there once again in good condition on our return
later this year (fingers crossed).
Our electrician/ commissioning engineer John Davies received his Polar
Medal this season, something that was well deserved and that we all
took a sense of pride in. We marked this during our New Year
celebrations where most of the station gathered near the Halley
memorial and a short congratulatory speech was given before our New
Year toast.
Now the season is once again over, and we look towards next time-
another relief, new science projects, all the planning training and
hiring of the British summer.
Dan McKenzie
[Many thanks to Dan for this report.]
Dan has provided a photo of the 2024-25 wintering team, which may be
found on the 2025 page of the ZFids website.
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Sadly, there are several deaths to report.
Paul Coslett
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Paul passed away on 31st October 2024. He was a glaciologist at Halley
in 1967 and 1968. You can find out more about his time with BAS from
his Oral History interview (link from the 1967 or 1968 pages of the Z-
Fids website. In recent years he was responsible for administering the
awards process for the Fuchs Medal. He was a prominent member of the
Devon and Cornwall Polar Society and in 2014 helped to organise a
centenary dinner at the Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Plymouth, where
Shackleton had stayed the night before sailing on the Imperial Trans
Antarctic Expedition.
Jim Jamieson
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Inevitably nicknamed "JimJam", he was Geophysicist at Halley in 1967
and 1968 died suddenly at his home in Longniddry, Scotland, on
10 November 2024. He and Bill Laidlaw were the first to make VLF
recordings at the base. He is survived by his wife Sheila. He was a
regular attender at reunions. He attended the Millennium reunion in
2001, Z50 and Z60 as well as the 2018 Grillage Village reunion.
Dick Stokes
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Dick, who died in mid November, was a meteorologist in 1965 and 1966.
Dick attended the 1966 winterers reunions held in 2001 and 2016 and
in pictures on the relevant pages of the Zfids website (links from the
1966 page).
Allan Clayton
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Charles Allen Clayton (nicknamed "Flowerpot") passed away on 2nd
January 2025 aged 88. Mike ("Muff") Warden has written an appreciation
a link to which may be found on the Zfids 1970 page. Allen was a
surveyor in 1969 and 1970 and was the base commander in 1970. He was on
the second ever expedition to the Shackelton Mountains. Some of
his pictures are on the Z-Fids website (link from the 1970 page)
including of Sir Vivian Fuchs on his valedictory tour before retiring
as Director of BAS, and also of the RRS Bransfield on her maiden
voyage. in 2018 he published a book "Postcards from the Past".
In 2021 he and his wife Jane published privately, a collection of
love letters exchanged between them when he was at Halley Bay and
she was his fiancée Jane Armstead. They married in June 1971 after his
return from Antarctica. (Link on ZFids 1970 page).
ZFids website www.zfids.org.uk
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There have been few changes to the website since the last ZFids
Newsletter, apart from recording the deaths listed above and Mike
(Muff) Warden's appreciation of Allen Clayton. The list of Station
Leaders (aka Base Commanders) has been update to note Dan Mckenzie
taking over form Thomes Barningham. Contributions to the website are
welcome any time. Why not have a look the the Zfids pages corresponding
to the year(s) that you were on base, and see if you can add anything -
happenings, anecdotes, pictures?
JK Wilson pen
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A fountain pen belonging to Dr JK Wilson, who was tragically killed in
the 1965 crevasse accident, was being offered for sale at the Oxfam
shop in Summertown, Oxford, on 8th February. I am not sure if it has
yet been sold, but if you are interested, contact Jane Bhattacharya
at oxfamshopf3718@oxfam.org.uk
John Davies ("JD")
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John was awarded a Polar Medal in the 2025 New Year Honours List.
Congratulations to him. He was Electrician in 1997 and 27 years later
was a member of the 2023-2024 summer team. See details and picture on
the 2024 Zfids page.
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. It is now open for
booking and so far 43 Fids have booked online for themselves and 20
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. There is little more than
a year and a half to go until the event, so why not guarantee your place
by booking today? Deposits are fully refundable until the end of the
year,
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:
George Hemmen (Logistics, RSIGYE, years): Choosing the base site
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"We were heading for 78 South which was the Vahsel Bay area but we got
well and truly stuck, stopped at about 76½ and came back north a bit.
Tried a couple of landing places. There were only three of us on that
ship that had been in the Antarctic before, and so we formed the
reconnaissance party. When we saw somewhere you could get ashore and
get up a slope. Because the whole of that area is bounded by the ice
front which is, what, 90 to 100 feet high with very very few breaks in
it. The first couple of landings were hopeless. Then the third one,
there was a nice little bay with some good-looking sea ice and a nice
slope at the back of it, up to the top. So we went up there and got to
the top. It was just unbelievable. It was as flat as a billiard table
as far as you could see. So we went in about a mile, mile and a half,
something like that. It still looked pretty good. So that was where we
said ‘OK this the spot.’"
NERC copyright, reproduced courtesy of BAS Archives Service.
Archives ref AD6/24/1/106.
Steve Emery (Electrician, 1976 & 1977): The small of base
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"You come down into the base. I can remember there being an odd smell
and thinking ‘I don’t know whether I am going to like the smell of
this, for all the time climbing down into the base.’ There obviously is
a smell down there which after a few hours you don’t even notice.
I think it was probably a combination of food and body odours,
I suspect. It wasn’t particularly pleasant I seem to remember. But you
come down, when you come down. When I first went into there, you come
down the main shaft. The gash area was fairly close by, which you
walked past and then into where the kitchen area was. So you had got
smells associated with that. And the accommodation block was kind of
behind you. You probably got it all blowing into that one area and then
disappearing off up the shaft. But it soon went and I went round and
you look at it. ‘Oh well!’"
NERC copyright, reproduced courtesy of BAS Archives Service.
Archives ref AD6/24/1/151.
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 407
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
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Andy
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