Background
Vivian Fuchs was born on February 11, 1908, in Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. He was the son of Ernst Fuchs and Violet Watson.
Eastern Rd, Brighton BN2 0AL, UK
Brighton College where Vivian Fuchs studied.
St John's College, St John's Street, Cambridge CB2 1TP, United Kingdom
St John's College where Vivian Fuchs studied.
Founder’s Medal
Sir Edmund Hillary (left) and Sir Vivian Fuchs during a press conference on a Wellington wharf, 1958, after the return of the members of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Vivian Fuchs at Plateau Depot, 1957.
Leader of the expedition Sir Vivian Fuchs (right) talks with Jon Stephenson at Scott Base, after finishing the crossing journey of the Antarctic.
Vivian Fuchs was born on February 11, 1908, in Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. He was the son of Ernst Fuchs and Violet Watson.
Vivian Fuchs studied at Brighton College. Later he entered St John's College where he studied geology.
Vivian Fuchs started his career as an explorer in 1929 when he went on an expedition with his tutour James Wordie. One year later, he graduated from St John's College and traveled with a Cambridge University expedition to study the geology of East African lakes. He also joined anthropologist Louis Leakey on an expedition to Olduvai Gorge. In 1934, he went on an expedition to Lake Rudolf.
At the beginning of the Second World War Vivian Fuchs enrolled in the Territorial Army, and was dispatched to the Gold Coast. He served here from 1942 to July 1943. When he returned home he was posted to London at Second Army headquarters in a civil affairs position. Fuchs set up scientific bases on the Graham Peninsula and was marooned on one of them for a year when the supply ship could not land because of weather conditions. During that time he conceived of a plan to fulfill Ernest Shackleton's dream of crossing Antarctica from coast to coast.
In 1957, Fuchs organized the Antarctic expedition. That was the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which was a part of the activities of the International Geophysical Year. In 1958 Vivian Fuchs became a director of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. He held this post until 1973, thereafter he focused on writing. His first book, The Crossing of Antarctica: The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, was written with Edmund Hillary in 1958. In 1959 his Antarctic Adventure: The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-58 was published, followed by Of Ice and Men in 1982.
Vivian Fuchs was a member of the Sedgwick Club at Cambridge and also a member of the Royal Society.
Vivian Fuchs married Joyce Connell in 1933. They had three children. In 1990 Joyce died of a heart attack. In 1991 Fuchs married his former assistant Eleanor Honnywill.