On the night of 26 June 1966 the main accommodation building on the island, known as Marion House, burnt to the ground. One of the “unintended consequences” of the fire was the loss of all the team photographs from 1948 onwards that were mounted inside the lounge. For several years ALSA, and its precursor project, have been tracking down these missing photographs from old team members or their descendants, having them framed and then taking them south to add to the team photos in the new base.
As a consequence up until a few days ago only four team photos remained to be found: for M6, M7, M16 and M17. Good news is that now only three are needed to complete the collection as the team photo for M7 (April – October 1951, then known as the “Sixth Relief”) has been recently posted to the Marion Community Facebook page by Dave Barnes, whose Father-in-Law was M7 team member Bernie F. Schaaf (front left in the photo). It is planned to have the photo printed and framed and taken to the island on this year’s relief.
Details of the the three left to find are:
M6 (“Fifth Relief”, October 1950 -April 1951, Leader F.W. Martin)
M16 (May 1959 – March 1960, Leader Willem A. van Huyssteen)
M17 (April 1960 – March 1961, Leader Willem A. van Huyssteen)
The names of all the team members for M6, M16 and M17 can be found here. With luck these last three team photographs will come to light and complete an important historical record. Any help will be appreciated!
In addition to the above, we have no “official” team photograph for M18 (April 1961 – March 1962), only an informal picture with its Team Leader (who presumably took the photograph) missing.
Members of Marion’s 18th Overwintering Team among a group aboard ship before their year ashore, photograph by the late Chris Snyman, March 1961, courtesy of his son PierreFeature photograph: Marion Island’s Seventh Team, April – October 1951;
Back row from left: Johannes Jacobus “Hannes” la Grange (Meteorologist) , Jimmy A. Rook (Officer-in-Charge/Radio Technician), Sergeant E.E. “Bob” Bradley (Medical Orderly/Cook), J. Louis van der Westhuizen (Meteorologist/Radio Operator)
Front from left: Bernie F. Schaaf (Joiner), John George Borain (Meteorologist)
With thanks to Dave Barnes, Tegan Carpenter-King (M72) and Pierre Snyman.
John Cooper, Principal Investigator, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, 06 February 2016
