Scientist's bones were found in an Antarctic glacier 65 years after he died. Photo / Supplied
A British man’s bones have been found in an Antarctic glacier 65 years after he died.
Dennis Bell was 25 years old when he fell through a crevice while working for what became the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1959.
His remains were never recovered and his mother “never got over it”, according to his brother David Bell. He told the BBC: “She couldn’t handle photographs of him and couldn’t talk about him.”
Dennis’ bones were found by a Polish Antarctic expedition in January, along with a wristwatch, radio and pipe.
David Bell, who now lives in Australia, said: “I had long given up on finding my brother. It is just remarkable, astonishing. I can’t get over it.”
The family lived in Harrow, London, when they received a telegram informing them Dennis had died. “The telegram boy said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you, but this is bad news’,” David said.
“Dennis was fantastic company. He was very amusing. The life and soul of wherever he happened to be.”
Dennis, known as “Tink”, worked in the RAF and trained as a meteorologist before joining the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey to work in Antarctica.
He went to Antarctica in 1958, where he was known for his “mischievous sense of humour”.
Records described him as the best cook in the hut, where he was in charge of sending up meteorological weather balloons and radioing the reports to the UK every three hours.
On July 26, 1959, Dennis, along with three colleagues and two dog sledges, set out from base to climb a glacier to carry out survey and geological work.
Ascending the glacier, they traversed a crevassed area, covered in deep soft snow, which “made the going difficult and the dogs showed signs of tiredness”, according to the British Atlantic Survey.
Dennis went ahead without his skis to urge his team on, before falling through the crevasse bridge.
Sir Vivian Fuchs, a former director of BAS, described the story of Bell’s death in his book Of Ice and Men.
“Peering into the depths, Stokes (Bell’s colleague) called repeatedly and was greatly relieved to be answered,” he wrote.
“Lowering a rope almost a hundred feet, he told Bell to tie himself on. As he could not haul up the weight, he hitched his end of the rope to the team. The dogs took the strain and began to pull ... But Bell had tied the rope through his belt instead of around his body, perhaps because of the angle at which he lay in the crevasse. As he reached the top his body jammed against the lip, the belt broke, and down he went again.”
Prof Dame Jane Francis, director of BAS, said: “Dennis was one of the many brave personnel who contributed to the early science and exploration of Antarctica under extraordinarily harsh conditions.
“Even though he was lost in 1959, his memory lived on among colleagues and in the legacy of polar research.”
David Bell thought he had got as close to his brother as he could after going on an expedition organised by the British Antarctic Monument Trust in 2015.
“It was very, very moving,” he said. “It lifted the pressure, a weight off my head, as it were. And I thought that would be it.”
He was told earlier this year that his brother’s remains had been found.
“I’m just sad my parents never got to see this day,” he said. “It’s wonderful; I’m going to meet my brother. You might say we shouldn’t be thrilled, but we are. He’s been found – he’s come home now.”
More than 200 personal items were found during the search, including the remains of radio equipment, ski poles, an inscribed Erguel wristwatch, a Swedish Mora knife, ski poles and an ebonite pipe stem.
The BAS said Dennis’ remains were transferred to the Falkland Islands on the BAS Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough, and placed in the care of Malcolm Simmons, His Majesty’s Coroner for British Antarctic Territory.
Simmons accompanied them on to London with the support of the Royal Air Force.
The BAS added: “The human remains were sent for DNA testing by Denise Syndercombe Court, professor in forensic genetics at King’s College London. She has now confirmed there is a match with samples from his brother David Bell and his sister Valerie Kelly. They are ‘more than one billion times’ more likely to be related than not.”