Vivian Fuchs (1908-99) led the British expedition that was the first to cross Antarctica from coast to coast.

Vivian Fuchs was born February 11, 1908, in the English county of Kent, the son of a farmer of German origin. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he studied geology. Between the years 1929 and 1938 he went on four geological expeditions to East Africa. During World War II he was a major in the British Army and served in West Africa and Germany and received several medals for bravery.

After the war, Fuchs was put in charge of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1947. The Dependencies were a group of islands near Antarctica and included Britain's claim to part of the mainland of Antarctica. Fuchs set up scientific bases on the Graham Peninsula and was marooned in one of them for a year when the supply ship could not land because of...