Arctic expedition of George Hubert Wilkins

Sir George Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar (31 October 1888 - 30 November 1958) was an Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer.^[1]

[edit] Early life

Wilkins was a native of Hallett, South Australia, the last of 13 children in a family of pioneer settlers and sheep farmers. His birthplace at Netfield, 13km west of Hallett (150 km North of Adelaide) is today an historic site.^[2] The original homestead has been restored by generous donation. He studied at the Adelaide School of Mines.^[3] As a teenager, he moved to Adelaide where he found work with a traveling cinema, and thence to England where he became a pioneering aerial photographer whilst working for Gaumont Studios. His photographic skill earned him a place on various Arctic expeditions, including the controversial 1913 Vilhjalmur Stefansson-led Canadian Arctic Expedition.

[edit] World War I

In 1917, Wilkins returned to his native Australia, joining the Australian Flying Corps in the rank of Second Lieutenant. Wilkins later transferred to the general list and in 1918 was appointed as an official war photographer. In June 1918 Wilkins was awarded the Military Cross for his efforts to rescue wounded soldiers during the Third Battle of Ypres. The following month Wilkins was promoted to Captain and became officer commanding No.3 (Photographic) Sub-section of the Australian war records unit. His work frequently led him into the thick of the fighting and during the Battle of the Hindenburg Line he assumed command of a group of American soldiers who had lost their officers in an earlier attack, directing them until support arrived. Wilkins was subsequently awarded a bar to his Military Cross.

[edit] Later life & career

In 1923 Wilkins joined the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition and also studied northern Australian birds for the British Museum until 1925.^[3] His work was greatly acclaimed by the museum but derided by Australian authorities because of the sympathetic treatment afforded the Aborigines and criticisms of the ongoing environmental damage in the country.

On 15 April 1928, only a year after Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, Wilkins and his pilot Carl Ben Eielson made a trans-Arctic crossing from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen, arriving about 20 hours later on 16 April, touching along the way at Grant Land on Ellesmere Island.^[4] For this feat and his prior work, Wilkins was knighted, and during the ensuing celebration, he met an Australian actress in New York Suzanne Bennett whom he later married.

Now financed by William Randolph Hearst, Wilkins continued his polar explorations, now flying over Antarctica. He named the island of Hearst Land after his sponsor, and Hearst thanked Wilkins by giving him and his bride a flight aboard Graf Zeppelin.

Wilkins led the failed Nautilus expedition to the North Pole in the summer of 1931. Despite the failure to meet his intended objective, he was able to prove that submarines were capable of operating beneath the polar ice cap, thereby paving the way for future successful missions.

On March 16, 1958, Wilkins appeared as a guest on the TV panel show What's My Line?.^[5]

Wilkins died in the United States in 1958. The US Navy took his ashes to the North Pole aboard the submarine USS Skate on 17 March 1959. The Navy confirmed on 27 March that "In a solemn memorial ceremony conducted by Skate shortly after surfacing, the ashes of Sir Hubert Wilkins were scattered at the North Pole in accordance with his last wishes." ^[6]

The Wilkins Sound and the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica are named after him. The majority of Wilkins' papers and effects are archived at The Ohio State University Byrd Polar Research Center.

[edit] See also

• Thomas George Lanphier, Sr.

[edit] Works

• 1928 Flying the Arctic, Grosset & Dunlap
• 1928 Undiscovered Australia, Putnam
• 1931 Under The North Pole, Brewer, Warren & Putnam

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• R. A. Swan, 2006 Wilkins, Sir George Hubert (1888 - 1958), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition, Australian National University, ISSN 1833-7538
• Thomas, Lowell 1961 Sir Hubert Wilkins: His World of Adventure McGraw-Hill.
• Nasht, Simon 2005 The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins Australia's Unknown Hero Sydney, Australia: Hachette/Hodder & New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 0 7336 1831 6
• Voyage of the Nautilus Documentary 2006
• Jenness, Stuart E. 2006 The Making of an Explorer, McGill Queen University Press.

[edit] External links

• Australian War Museum Entry for Sir George Hubert Wilkins
• Register of The Sir George Hubert Wilkins Papers
• Australian Dictionary of Biography Entry for GH Wilkins
• Sir Hubert Wilkins biography from Flinders Ranges Research
• In Search of Sir Hubert Short bio on Sir Hubert Wilkins
• Searching for Sir Hubert Documentary Filmmaker site
• The 1931 Nautilus Expedition to the North Pole
• Disintegration of the Wilkins Ice Shelf
• The Last Explorer: Simon Nasht Life&Times radio documentary, first broadcast by ABC Radio National, 29 August 2009