This day in history: Officer-in-Charge Allan Crawford of Marion Island’s first overwintering team goes ashore in 1948

On 02 February 1948 Allan Bryant Crawford went ashore on Marion Island for the first time.  He had travelled south to the island on the frigate H.M.S.A.S. Good Hope under the command of Commander H.G. Fougstedt along with members of Marion’s first overwintering team (M1), for which he was (as then called) Officer-in-Charge.

The Good Hope sailed from Cape Town on 23 January, arriving at the islands on 28 January.  Aboard along with Allan Crawford were fellow team members Radio Operator J.A. “Benny” Bennetts, Radio Technician C.O. “Hawky” Hawkins and six Tristan Islanders (“Big” Gordon Glass, Edward “Ned” Green, John the Baptist Lavarello, Arthur Repetto, Arthur Rogers and Fred Swain).  A month later Acting Sergeant W.M. “Tiny” Strydom joined M1 as Medical Orderly and Cook, making a total complement of 10.

By 20 March the first buildings had been erected by army personnel who then departed on the H.M.S.A.S Natal (Lieutenant Commander R. Paul Dryden-Dymond) on its second island visit, leaving M1 alone on the island (along with some sheep, chickens and geese) until it was relieved by the minesweeper H.M.S.A.S. Bloemfontein (Lieutenant-Commander Hugo Hendrick. Biermann OBE) in late August 1948.

With thanks to Martin Crawford for information and photographs taken by his father on Marion Island

Feature photograph: Allan Crawford outside the island’s meteorological office during a later visit in 1955. He wears his uniform as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (South African Division).

References:

Crawford, A.B. 1948.  Report on visit to Marion Island, February – August 1948.  Pretoria: Met. Headquarters.  8 pp.

Crawford, A.[B.] 1962.  Tristan da Cunha and the Roaring Forties.  Edinburgh: Charles Skilton & Cape Town; David Philip.  256 pp.

Crawford, A.B. 1999.  Penguins, Potatoes & Postage Stamps. A Tristan da Cunha Chronicle.  Oswestry: Anthony Nelson.  166 pp.

Crawford, A.B. 2006.  Memoirs: North, South, East & West.  Easton: George Mann Publishers.  96 pp.

Dryden-Dymond, R.P. 1948.  [Report of Proceedings of the H.M.S.A.S. “Natal” 2nd, March to 24th, March 1948].  Pretoria: South African National Defence Force Documentation Centre.  9 pp.

Fougstedt, H.G. 1948.   Report of Proceedings: Voyage Cape Town to Prince Edward Islands; 23rd January, 1948 to 21st February 1948.  Pretoria: South African National Defence Force Documentation Centre.  7 pp.

Marsh, J.H. 1948.  No Pathway Here.  Cape Town: Howard B. Timmins.  200 pp.

John Cooper, Principal Investigator, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University