Remembering Dennis Bell
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A gathering of Dennis ‘Tink’ Bell’s family and friends came together in the Memorial Orchard at BAS on 28 August 2015 to remember him and to pay homage. His remains were discovered in the retreating Ecology Glacier in Admiralty Bay, King George Island in the January of this year, 66 years since he fell to his death on 26 July 1959 by a Polish team operating out of Henryk Arctowski Station. Tink wintered at Base G as a meteorologist in 1958 and 1959.
The event was organised jointly by the British Antarctic Monument Trust, BAMT, and the British Antarctic Survey, BAS, and was hosted by Tink’s brother David, seated in the photograph, and sister Valerie, on David’s right at BAS. The confirmation by DNA testing of the remains in August coincided with David, his wife Yvonne and their daughters coming from their home in Australia to celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary with their family in the UK.
Present from BAS were the Director, Professor Dame Jane Francis, archivist Ieuan Hopkins, and the communications team Julie Jupe and Athena Dinar. BAMT was represented by its chair Rod Rhys Jones, secretary Sandi Rhys Jones OBE, trustee Dick Harbour and ambassador John Killingbeck. BAS Club was represented by John Dudeney OBE. HM Commissioner for the British Antarctic Territory and Head of the FCDO Polar Regions Department, Jane Rumble OBE, also attended, along with a representative of the Polish Embassy, Mateusz Malek.
This was a very poignant event. It began with a visit to the BAS archives to view documents, reports and other material from 1958/9 associated with Tink. There was then a lunch hosted by Jane Francis. This was followed by a gathering around the Memorial Plinth in the Memorial Orchard to pay tribute to Tink and the 28 others who died in Antarctica in pursuit of science to benefit us all. The event was rounded off by “smoko” in the Icebreaker with apple cake prepared by Julie Jupe with apples gathered from the memorial orchard.
Photo: Credit: Athena Dinar@BAS