Douglas Mawson  (1882 - 1958)

Douglas Mawson was born in Yorkshire but came to Australia with his parents at the age of two. He developed an outstanding scientific talent in studying the geology of Australia and Pacific lands. In 1908 he was recruited by Ernest Shackleton for the Nimrod Antarctic expedition, in which he was in the party that first located the South Magnetic Pole. In 1911 he led the outstandingly successful Australasian Antarctic Expedition, which explored large areas of East Antarctica. During that time he was the sole survivor of a horrific sledge journey in which his two companions died. From 1929 Mawson led a two-year joint Australian, British and New Zealand expedition to explore the Southern Ocean and the coast of East Antarctica.