POLAR MEDAL PAIR TO LT. A.R.F. DALGLEISH, THE BUFFS

Polar Medal London Gazetted 28 June 1957: “'For good services as members of the advance party of the Royal Society Antarctic Expedition for the International Geophysical Year”.

Ten silver medals with 'Antarctic 1956' clasp awarded per this edition.

Captain Angus Robin Franklin Dalgliesh was born on 31 May 1928 and educated at Merchant Taylors', London, commissioned Second Lieutenant with The Buffs on 21 Oct 1948 and promoted Lieutenant on 21 Oct 1950, serving with the regiment during the Suez Crisis, being wounded in action by a 'dum-dum' round through the ankle, which required a sixteen week recovery.

Dalgleish was then attached to the Somaliland Scouts from 27 June 1952, one of the 24 officers of the unit, promoted Captain on 21 Oct 1954 and later served as a District Officer in Kitui and later Wajir, Kenya, resigning his commission on 1 July 1959.

In the 1950s, plans were laid for a Third International Geophysical Year in 1957-58. British interests were headed by the Royal Society, who had highlighted a vast deficit of overall Antarctic coverage lay in the southern area of the Weddell Sea, mostly in Vahsel Bay, within the jurisdiction of the Falkland Islands. It was therefore considered that a new station, under the possession of H.M. The Queen, should be established.

The Treasury formally approved the Expedition advance party and the establishment of the station in a paper dated 3 Sep1955. Following this, Angus Dalgleish’s brother, Surgeon Captain David Dalgliesh, L.V.O., O.B.E., Polar Medal with two clasps, was appointed to lead the expedition.

Captain Angus Dalgliesh joined the expedition and successfully applied to the Royal Society, a wage of £420.00 per annum. His brother remarked in Angus ‘Robin’s obituary: '... I was surprised, knowing his enjoyment of the hot Somaliland desert, but Robin said he would like to try a snow desert for a change.'

The two brothers, together with eight other selected men and over 200 tonnes of supplies left Southampton aboard Tottan on 22 Nov 1955: ‘a cheerful bunch, mostly tradesmen' [Sir Edmund Hillary ‘No latitude’]. They sailed south toward the destination, although an unscheduled stop was required, reaching South Georgia on Christmas morning 1955. Setting out once again, the men endured '...three days of effortless sailing then into really heavy pack ice at about 76½° South. Three times we were held fast and everyone was over the side with pick axes and poles...and once the Captain had to use dynamite to break us out. It was clear that at that stage we were not going to be able to penetrate that last 90 miles to Vahsel Bay so we turned back North to try to find a landing place.' [George Hemmen Halley Bay ‘Base Z’ 

With a number of repeated failures and a direct order to establish a station south of 75° South, the final station was established approximately 4km in from the furthest passage of Tottan, upon the Brunt Ice Shelf. Luck had struck as the Tottan was able to move into the bay ice far enough to allow unloading of the men and cargo. The date was 6 Jan 1956 and the station was later named after Sir Edmond Halley, to commemorate the 300 years since his birth. In the following two weeks, the cargo was unloaded to the selected site, before the Tottan left on 23 Jan 1956 before the ice closed in. Once the ship had left, the main aim for Expedition was the building of shelter. This took five weeks, meaning sleeping in tents and working shifts of 15 hours until the Main Hut was erected, being 326 square feet. Such was the speed of work that the men moved into the partially completed hut on 26 Feb 1956 and the outer shell was fully weatherproofed and completed a month later.

Soon after the first communications and scientific experiments were completed, with contact made with Port Stanley and the first meteorological observations being made from the 12m high observation tower. In all the Advance Expedition in 1956 was a success with all objectives fulfilled, with the Tottan being first in relieving the men of the station in January 1957, in bringing the forward party for the 1957-58 Expedition. All the men were returned to London in March 1957.

Such was the success of the Advance Party in 1956 that the British Antarctic Survey retains a station at Halley Bay to this day. The Halley VI Research Station was completed and opened, 5.2.2013. The original Station, built by Dalgliesh and the Advance Party of 1956 was used for many years, with the Halley V Research Station detecting the hole in the ozone layer in 1985, measured by Dobson Spectrophotometer.