Victor Campbell

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Victor Lindsay Arbuthnot Campbell DSO & Bar , OBE (born August 20, 1875 in Brighton , † November 19, 1956 in Corner Brook , Newfoundland ) was a British naval officer and polar explorer in the Antarctic .

Life

Campbell was born in Brighton in 1875, the second son of Hugh Campbell and Lucy Eleanor Archer.

Terra Nova expedition

He was first officer on the Terra Nova expedition under Robert Falcon Scott , which began in 1910 . In this function, after arriving in Antarctica in 1911, he headed the so-called "Eastern party" consisting of six men for exploration and research in King Edward VII Land in the east of the Ross Ice Shelf . On January 26, 1911, the group on board the Terra Nova left the base for the east. Since no suitable landing site could be found on the coast of King Edward VII Land, Campbell decided to drive towards Victoria Land . On the way back west, Campbell met the Norwegian South Pole expedition under Roald Amundsen in the Bay of Whales .

Campbell returned to Cape Evans to inform Scott of Amundsen's presence. Campbell's group was renamed "Northern Party" and re-embarked to go ashore near Cape Adare in Robertson Bay . A hut for wintering was built. However, the sea ice conditions in the summer of 1911/12 did not allow most of the planned expeditions.

In January 1912, on her return from New Zealand , the Terra Nova picked up the group consisting of Campbell, Raymond Priestley , George Murray Levick , George Percy Abbott , Harry Dickason and Frank Vernon Browning , and dropped them off again in Evans Cove . Evans Cove is 400 km south of Cape Adare, but still 320 km northwest of the base station at Cape Evans . Although Campbell only had rations for about six weeks, Priestley's geological studies were initially completed in about two weeks. It was assumed that the group would be able to be resumed by ship in February as agreed. However, due to heavy pack ice , the Terra Nova was unable to reach it, so that Campbell's group was forced to hibernate again. The group built an ice cave on Inexpressible Island and spent the winter in adverse conditions, feeding on seals and penguins. On September 30th she set out for Cape Evans, which she reached on November 7th after a march of over 300 km over the lake ice.

As the last surviving naval officer at the time after Scott's South Pole group died, Campbell took command of the Terra Nova expedition for the last few weeks.

Later years and honors

During World War I Campbell fought as commander of the 1st (Drake) Battalion of the Royal Naval Division in the Battle of Gallipoli , the Dardanelles , where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), and in the Battle of the Skagerrak . In 1918 he took part in an attempt to blockade the German submarine base in the port of Zeebrugge on board the HMS Warwick . In the further service in the Dover Patrol , Campbell rammed a German submarine with his ship and sank it, for which he was once again awarded the DSO. Campbell achieved the rank of sea ​​captain in the Royal Navy .

In the winter of 1918-19, Campbell was stationed in Murmansk on the recommendation of Ernest Shackleton to instruct British troops in the use of equipment for the Arctic latitudes during the intervention of the Entente Powers in the Russian Civil War . For this he received the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Campbell emigrated to Newfoundland in 1922, where he died in Corner Brook in 1956.

His diaries from the time in Antarctica were published by Erskine in 1988.

Works

  • The Wicked Mate: The Antarctic Diary of Victor Campbell . ed. by HGR King., Erskine Press, 1988 ISBN 9781852970710

literature

  • Hooper, Meredith (2010). The Longest Winter: Scott's Other Heroes . London: John Murray. ISBN 9780719595806
  • Priestley, Raymond (1957). Obituary: Captain VLA Campbell, DSO, RN 1875-1956 . London: Royal Geographical Society, The Geographical Journal Vol. 123, No. 1 (Mar. 1957), pp. 131-132

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Damien Wright. Shackleton's men in the Arctic: polar explorers and Arctic warfare in North Russia 1918-19 . Orders & Medals Research Society Journal, September 2017, pp. 188–98.
  2. ↑ London Gazette, May 24, 1919 . Retrieved October 2, 2017. 
personal data
SURNAME Campbell, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Campbell, Victor Lindsay Arbuthnot (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British naval officer and polar explorer in Antarctica
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Brighton
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1956
Place of death Corner Brook , Newfoundland