Born 1908,
Kent, England

Vivian Fuchs was born 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.

Makes plan while stranded

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