Jeremy
Please see my 'Contact' page re email address.
photo by kind permission of Brian Dorsett-Bailey
[Please do not use this photo without prior permission of his family; requests can be made via my contact email address]
"Excuse me please, but which way is the South Pole?"
Jeremy Thomas Bailey, an Emperor Penguin, and the Danish merchant vessel Kista Dan, of Esbjerg, in the Antarctic.
photos by kind permission of Brian Dorsett-Bailey
Jeremy Bailey's Antarctic medal.
A member of the Lincolnshire Wolds (Stainton le Vale) Drakes family was Jeremy Thomas Bailey (b.1941) who died on 12.10.1965 near Halley Bay, in the Antarctic, whilst on a British Antarctic Survey expedition. He was an unmarried 24-year-old, the younger son of Alec William Bailey (b.1913) and Dulcie Drakes (b.1912). He was working for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a field geophysicist, 'on loan' from the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge. He, D.P. Wild (surveyor) and D. John K. Wilson MO (physiologist, in charge of this four-man field party) plunged 100 feet into a crevasse on a Muskeg snow tractor whilst on an Antarctic expedition, during a radio echo sounding traverse inland from Halley Station. A fourth member, John Ross (geologist), who had been behind on a dog sled, attempted to reach them but failed. He was unable to raise help by radio and daylight gradually failed, as did the lone voice of seriously injured Jeremy far below; the others were already dead. Knowing that he could not survive his injuries, Jeremy bravely talked John Ross into not attempting a descent to help him with pain killers; he would have known that it would have seriously risked Ross's life, as he would have been unlikely to get out again unaided from above. He died in pain knowing that his colleague had a good chance of surviving the journey back alone. The next morning John Ross travelled alone the forty-five mile journey back to the rest of their team, to get help. Though a member of the rescue party (Beebe) was lowered down the crevasse, it was not possible to recover their bodies from the crushed cab of the Muskeg tractor, which was jammed in the ever narrowing gap in the ice. A short service was conducted over the spot and a home-made wooden cross erected to mark the spot, before the rest of the team returned to Halley Bay base camp. "Bailey Ice Stream" (79°0'S 30°0'W) on the northern margin of the Theron Mountains, flowing west-south-west to the Filchner Ice Shelf, was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after him. He was the President of the Physical Society at Bristol University. He was posthumously awarded the Queen's Polar Medal, and there is a memorial to him at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge.
Brief details of the accident are recorded in Of Ice and Men by Sir Vivian Fuchs, published by Anthony Nelson, 1982 ISBN 0 904614 06 9, pages 210/212.
Information also obtained from Lewis Juckes, who was a member of the rescue party that attempted to recover the three bodies; he was with the other half of their group, who were 100 miles away at the time of the accident.
photo by Chris Drakes 2011
An 'Ice Molecule' model purchased by the Scott Polar Research Institute in memory of Jeremy Bailey
photo by Chris Drakes 2011
The following websites contain further information and photos:
In 2006 a new and exciting project began - to create a permanent memorial in the Antarctic and in at Cambridge to the memory of those who have perished in the Antarctic region.
In 2007, Jeremy's brother Brian was invited to be a Trustee for the British Antarctic Monument Trust. The organisers are very keen to make contact with the families of those who did not return from the Antarctic:
1948
Oliver Burd and Michael Green, 9 November, Hope Bay.
Eric Platt, 10 November, Admiralty Bay.
1953
Arthur Farrant, 17 November, Deception Island.
1956
Ronald Napier, 24 March, Admiralty Bay.
1958
Stanley Black, David Statham and Geoffrey Stride, 27 May, Horseshoe Island.
1959
Alan Sharman, 23 April, Admiralty Bay.
Dennis Bell, 26 July, Admiralty Bay.
1961
Roger Filer, 13 February, Signy.
1963
Neville Mann, 15 August, Halley Bay.
1965
Jeremy Bailey, David Wild and John Wilson, 12 October, Halley Bay.
1966
John Noel and Thomas Allan, June, Stonington Island.
1976
Geoffrey Hargreaves, Michael Walker and Graham Whitfield, September, Argentine Islands.
1980
Miles Mosley, 2 February, Halley Bay.
1981
John Anderson and Robert Atkinson, 16 May, Rothera.
1982
Ambrose Morgan, Kevin Ockleton and John Coll, 14 August, Argentine Islands.
2003
Kirsty Brown, 22 July, Rothera.
Three Antartcic Memorials have been erected at: The Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK; Stanley, Falkland Islands; & St. Paul's Cathedral, London, UK, in memory of those who have not returned - for further information and sponsorship, please visit the website: antarctic-monument.org. Please circulate this link amongst those you think might be interested, especially if they may be one of the bereaved family members.
The Antarctic Memorial at St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
photo by Chris Drakes 2011
'FOR THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN ANTARCTICA
IN PURSUIT OF SCIENCE TO BENEFIT US ALL'
The Antarctic Memorial at The Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge.
&
The two elements of the Antarctic Memorial, showing the planned
second element to be erected at Stanley, in the Falkland Islands.
The first two memorials were erected in St. Paul's Crypt, London (10.5.2011) & The Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge (12.5.2011). The third memorial was erected on the tip of Dockyard Point, Port Stanley, Falkland Islands (25.2.2015), which is the base from which all British expeditions set off for the Antarctic. There are a limited number of souveniers for sale via the Trust via antarctic-monument.org.
His elder brother Brian Dorsett-Bailey was heavily involved in the British Antarctic Monument Trust, which organised these memorials to those who died undertaking Antarctic exploration and research. Sadly, he died in 2018, aged 79, but had been able to attand all the memorial installations, including that at Stanley, Falkland Islands. He is survived by his wife and five daughters.
