In the 1920s and 1930s Quinton Horace Bullard, later a Commander in the South African Navy Reserve, travelled south from Cape Town as a radio operator on several sealing and whaling voyages, visiting the sub-Antarctic islands of Marion, Kerguelen and Heard. He later wrote a 75-page account describing his southern sojourns. The typescript has remained unpublished within the Bullard family ever since and so has never been available for study by sub-Antarctic historians.
Now with the agreement and support of Cdr Bullard’s late son Quinton Bullard II and his grandson Quinton Bullard III, the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa will prepare the reminiscences for publication in the newly commenced ALSA Publication Series.
To edit Bullard’s manuscript, ALSA has obtained the services of Genevieve Jones, who after obtaining her PhD studying albatrosses on Marion Island as a member of the M55, M63 and M65 Teams, works as a freelance scientific editor. The book to be produced will be illustrated by Cdr Bullard’s own photographs and hand-drawn maps, as well as a pen and ink drawing of Marion Island and a water-colour of Heard Island – both depicted here. It is also intended to include a biogeographical sketch of the author, who died on 28 July 1953 at the relatively young age of 51 when the Managing Director of Marconi S.A. Ltd, a list of his own publications (some of which may be reproduced), as well as other illustrative material depicting his life.
Surely the most significant part of Cdr Bullard’s southern journeys from a South African perspective was his visit to Marion Island in October and November 1930 on the sealing vessel S.S. Kildalkey under Captain H.O. Hansen, leading to the naming of the geographical features of Bullard Beach, Hansen Point and Kildalkey Bay. Significantly Bullard prepared a sketch of possible landing points on Marion Island that helped inform the annexation of the island by South Africa in 1948.
Feature Photograph: the S.S. Kildalkey off Atlas Cove, Heard Island. Water-colour by Quinton H. Bullard
John Cooper, Principal Investigator, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany & Zoology, Stellenbosch University, 10 June 2016