Antarctic Place Names

A major objective of the British Antarctic Monument Trust (BAMT) was to ensure that all BAS/FIDS personnel who died in the Antarctic were remembered by a feature being named after them. The UK Antarctic Place-names Committee (UKAPC) makes recommendations to the Governor of the British Antarctic Territory who makes the final decision on whether a new Place-name will be accepted.  BAMT has been collaborating with the Secretary of the UKAPC by submitting justifications for new names since 2013, and requesting that the UKAPC finds appropriate features in their honour.  

In the early years of FIDS there were a number of fatalities and the UKAPC routinely honoured those who died.  Later, as the incidence of fatalities diminished so did the recognition of those who had more recently died.  By 2006 when BAMT was formed, there were eleven of the twenty-nine who died that were not celebrated. 

In 2013 and 2014 BAMT consulted the British Antarctic Survey Archives and made formal proposals to the UKAPC for the eleven outstanding names.  It took until October 2021 for all the remaining men to be honoured.  The BAMT Trustees thank Adrian Fox, Secretary to the UKAPC, for identifying features  for which names were needed in the vicinity of where the men had died.  The Trustees also thank the UKAPC for accepting the nominations and for publishing them in the UK Gazetteer.  

A full list of the Place names accepted by the UK and Norwegian Place-name Committees celebrating the lives of those who died on Antarctic service is available as a PDF file here.