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Antarctica and Academe LARGE ANIMALS AND WIDE HORIZONS: ADVENTURES OF A BIOLOGIST The Autobiography of RICHARD M. LAWS PART III Antarctica and Academe Edited by Arnoldus Schytte Blix 1 Contents Chapt. 1. Return to Antarctic work, 1969 …………………………………......….4 Chapt. 2. Antarctic Journey, 1970-1971 ………………………………………......14 Chapt. 3. Reorganising BAS Biology, 1969-73 ………………………………...... 44 Chapt. 4. Director of BAS, 1973- 1987 ……………………………………….....…50 Chapt. 5. First Antarctic Journey as Director: 1973-74 …………………….........56 Chapt. 6. Continuing Antarctic Journey ……………………………………....… 80 Chapt. 7. Antarctic Journeys: 1975-1982 ……………………………………….. 104 The 1975-1976 Season ……………………………………………….…104 The R/V “Hero” voyage: 1977………………………………………... 137 The 1978-1979 Season ………………………………………………… 162 The 1979-1980 Season ………………………………………………… 173 The 1981-1982 Season ………………………………………………… 187 Chapt. 8. South Georgia and the Falklands War: 1982 ………………………. 200 Chapt. 9. After the war: BAS Expansion, 1983-1987 ……………………….… 230 Chapt. 10. Antarctic Journey: 1983-84 ………………………………………..…234 Chapt. 11. Great Waters: The Southern Ocean …………………………….…. 256 Chapt. 12. Last Antarctic Journey as Director: 1986-87 ……………………... 274 Chapt. 13. Scientist Among Diplomats …………………………………….….. 302 Chapt. 14. SCAR: Four Decades of Achievement ……………………………. .318 Chapt. 15. Master of St. Edmund’s College ………………………………........ 328 Chapt. 16. Last Antarctic Journey, In Retirement: 2000-2001 ………………... 378 R. M. LAWS. Publications ………………………………………………………. 398 R. M. LAWS. Short Curriculum vitae …………………………………………... 418 2 3 Chapter 1 Return to Antarctic work: 1969-1973 Ross seal singing rom 1961 to 1968 I had been working on tropical animal ecology, until 1967 as Director of the Nuffield Unit of Tropical Animal Ecology in Uganda, and from F 1967-68 as Director of the Tsavo Research Project in Kenya. That research had been mainly on hippopotamus and elephant biology, in all quite a change from the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean! In 1968, because I had been forced to resign from the Tsavo Research Project, I had technically broken my contract and so we had to relocate the family without any assistance. We had some personal furniture that we had to sell at a loss and had to get the rest of our belongings and ourselves back to England. Also I now had no salary coming in and we still had a mortgage to pay and school fees for Richard at Oakham; Christopher had not been accepted there and was at Comberton Comprehensive School. I had no job to go to, because a senior position in Canada, which I had been offered was withdrawn when the Canadian Government froze new posts as an economy measure when Trudeau became Premier. We were reduced to living on our savings, but I was fortunate to be awarded a Smuts Memorial Fund Fellowship by Cambridge University and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. These two fellowships saw us through, and enabled me to write up the most important of my African research. During this year we used up the bulk of our savings and I went “on the dole”. Appointment as Head, Life Sciences, British Antarctic Survey This was the situation in July l969 when Ray Adie, an old Antarctic friend (I had been best-man at his wedding to Aileen), telephoned to ask if I was interested in a new post at British Antarctic Survey (BAS). (As FIDS was now called, following the 4 entry into force of the international Antarctic Treaty.) I expressed interest, was short- listed, interviewed and appointed. [The interview Board included Ray Beverton, Secretary of NERC, Bunny Fuchs, Professor Tony Fogg, biologist, and Professor John Sutton, geologist, [as well as the obligatory Civil Service representative [?]. ] Professors Alan Parkes and Bill Thorpe, both FRS, who were mainly familiar with my African work provided good references. Alan stated that in his opinion I was an outstanding ecologist, one of the best, possibly the best, in the United Kingdom, and among the leaders in the world. I had done splendid work in establishing the Nuffield Unit in the Queen Elizabeth Park, Uganda, and in evolving a programme of research suited to the particular conditions under which the Unit had to operate. My directorship of the Tsavo Research Project was foredoomed by political and personal factors over which I had no control, and ‘under which my interest in scientific conservation as opposed to blind preservation had little scope’. I had to my credit numerous publications, several of which were of monograph size. The award to me, in 1966, of the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society was largely for my Antarctic work - the African research had not then been written up. In addition to my scientific ability, he said, ‘I was notable for my resolution, organising power and personal energy. I inspired great loyalty in, and gave it to, my staff. Because of my dedication to scientific work I tended to be impatient and sometimes intolerant of what I regarded as obstruction or lack of support, but this undoubtedly contributed to my capacitv for getting things done!’ In view of my scientific interests and past experience, both of field work in the Antarctic and Africa, and of laboratory work and administration in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and of my personal qualities - he believed that I was almost ideally fitted for the post of SPSO in charge of the Life Sciences Programme of the British Antarctic Survey. Bill wrote that he had a very high opinion indeed of my work and ability. I had carried out first class ecological studies of large mammals in East Africa, in particular the hippopotamus while at NUTAE Animal Ecology in Uganda; and subsequently with elephants in Kenya. I was ‘certainly one of the best animal ecologists at present working in the field’ and all I did ‘shows a penetrating mind and ability to get to the very core of a problem. I was ‘also extremely capable in organizing and maintaining very large scale experiments’. He had not had any personal acquaintance with my previous work in the Antarctic but supposed that my early experience there would be a great asset for the present post and to take on this new work might be, in a sense, returning to an old love. In this way I returned to my earlier Antarctic and marine mammal interests, and took up a new job at the Nature Conservancy’s Monkswood Research Station. Monkswood was about 45 minutes drive from my home in Coton near Cambridge, via Madingley, St Ives and Abbots Ripton. The drive was pleasant in summer, but not so enjoyable in winter, driving through the fenland frosts and dense mists – it was dangerous even. The BAS Zoology Section was now housed in a prefabricated building on the edge of Monks Wood, a Nature Reserve. The Botany and Zoology Sections now comprised the Life Sciences Division created on 1 October l969 and headed by me. Although the principle administrative posts in BAS had been 5 confirmed as permanent and pensionable in l964, my post and Ray Adie’s post as Head of the Geology Section at Birmingham were the first permanent scientific posts created in FIDS/BAS. However, the corresponding Atmospheric and Earth Sciences Divisions were not created until 1973, but in 1969 there were Sections on Geology and Solid Earth Geophysics (housed at Birmingham University), Glaciology (Cambridge) and Solid Earth geophysics (Edinburgh) and Ionospherics (Slough)] The development of FIDS from 1954 to 1969. [VEF Memoir for RS] During the time I had been away from the Survey, first studying whale biology in the Antarctic and at the National Institute of Oceanography and then in Africa, the scientific work of the Survey, had developed slowly from the early emphasis on a political presence involving an administration, supported by meteorology, geographical exploration, and surveying, to the beginnings of a wider, more research based programme. When I was writing up my elephant seal work in the early 1950s at Cambridge for my PhD, London Office or Rear base, Crown Agents, was responsible for supplies, equipment and recruitment for FIDS. Returning to Britain in l950 Bunny Fuchs had been appointed Principal Scientific Officer and set up another office in London, responsible for scientific matters, the FIDS Scientific Bureau, with direct responsibility to the Colonial Secretary (ref 77). The purpose was to plan new programmes more efficiently and to enable young scientists to write up their research. It served as a focal point for the few scientists like myself writing up their field work and indeed for all Fids. Bunny was very helpful and supportive in ‘smoothing the way’. He was responsible for the custody of specimens and records and for their analysis and publication in a new series, the FIDS Scientific Reports. In 1952 the British National Committee for Antarctic Research was set up by the Royal Society. In 1953 the life of the Bureau was extended for a further three years and from 1 April it became an integral part of FIDS. Initially Fuchs worked in conjunction with the independent logistics operation, and with the Scientific Committee working to political and scientific objectives. It was not to his liking for his heart was in exploration and the split command made life difficult. During lie-up periods in the tent, due to bouts of bad weather on the long journeys down [King] George VI Sound in 1948 and 1949, [with Ray Adie], he had begun to develop plans for an expedition with the primary objective of crossing the Antarctic from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. This feat had been attempted, unsuccessfully, by Wilhelm Filchner in 1911 and Ernest Shackleton in l914. The plans took shape and in l955 he took long leave from the Bureau to plan and undertake a private expedition, the Commonwealth Trans Antarctic Expedition (TAE). Support had to be sought and funds raised: some £725,000, about £12 million at today’s prices.
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