POLAR MEDAL GROUP OF 3 MEDALS & ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION EPHEMERA TO CPTR. D.R.O. PRIOR

Polar Medal Gazetted 28 June 1957:

“For good services as members of the advance party of the Royal Society Antarctic Expedition for the International Geophysical Year”.

Douglas Roland Otway "Doug" Prior was a carpenter and builder who served with the 10-man advance party of the 1956 Royal Society Antarctic Expedition. His team established the original Halley Bay base on the Brunt Ice Shelf. Prior's team actively supported and supplied Sir Vivian Fuchs's historic Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

As Carpenter, Prior oversaw and completed the construction of the expedition building and with his brother-in-law John Raymond, built the first Halley Bay base, famously constructing a Tudor-style sitting room to boost morale in the extreme polar conditions. The expedition’s advance party included Prior and he helped to assemble the expedition's Otter aircraft and build the Weddell Sea Shackleton base.

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 Prior 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.

In June 1957, Prior’s services to the expedition were officially recognized with the award of Great Britain's highest exploratory honour, the Polar Medal. 10 silver medals with 'Antarctic 1956' clasp awarded per this edition.