View source for Vivian Fuchs

{{Short description|British polar explorer (1908–1999)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Sir Vivian Fuchs
| post-nominals      = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}}
| image              = Sir Vivian Fuchs, 1958 (cropped).jpg
| alt                = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption            = Sir Vivian Fuchs in [[Wellington]], 1958.
| birth_name         = Vivian Ernest Fuchs
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1908|02|11|df=yes}}
| birth_place        = [[Freshwater, Isle of Wight]], England
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1999|11|11|1908|02|11|df=yes}}
| death_place        = [[Cambridge]], [[Cambridgeshire]], England
| education          = [[Brighton College]]
| alma_mater         = [[St John's College, Cambridge]]
| occupation         = 
| years_active       = 
| known_for          = 
| notable_works      = 
| spouse             = {{ubl|{{marriage|Joyce Connell<br>|1933|1990|end=d}}|{{marriage|[[Eleanor Honnywill]]<br>|1991}}}}
| children           = 3
}}
'''Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} ({{IPAc-en|f|ʊ|k|s}} {{respell|FUUKS}}; 11 February 1908 – 11 November 1999) was an English scientist-explorer and [[exploration|expedition]] organizer.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-07 |title=Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs {{!}} Antarctic Expedition & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vivian-Ernest-Fuchs |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> He led the [[Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition]] which reached the [[South Pole]] overland in 1958.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shephard |first=Rachel |date=2010-08-28 |title=Sir Vivian Fuchs |url=https://antarctic-logistics.com/2010/08/28/sir-vivian-fuchs/ |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Biography ==
Fuchs was the son of the German immigrant Ernst Fuchs from the [[Jena]] area and of his British wife Violet Watson. He was born in 1908 in [[Freshwater, Isle of Wight]], and attended [[Brighton College]] and [[St John's College, Cambridge]]. He was educated as a geologist, and considered the profession a means of pursuing his interest in the outdoors. He was a member of the [[Sedgwick Club]], a geological society, at Cambridge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/?field=person&terms=%22Fuchs,%C2%A0++++++++Sir+Vivian+Ernest.%C2%A0(++++++++1908-1999)%C2%A0++++++++Knight+Explorer%22|title="Fuchs, Sir Vivian Ernest. ( 1908-1999) Knight Explorer" - Search - Archives Hub|website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk|access-date=2017-02-07}}</ref> His first expedition was to [[Greenland]] in 1929 with his tutor [[James Wordie]]. After graduation in 1930, he travelled with a Cambridge University expedition to study the geology of East African lakes with respect to [[Climate change (general concept)|climate fluctuation]]. Next, he joined [[anthropologist]] [[Louis Leakey]] on an expedition to [[Olduvai Gorge]]. In 1933, Fuchs married his cousin, Joyce Connell. A world traveller in her own right, Joyce accompanied Vivian on his expedition to Lake Rudolf (now [[Lake Turkana]]) in 1934. The findings from this expedition, in which two of their companions were lost, were summarised by Fuchs in his Cambridge University PhD, which has awarded 1937.

In February 1936, his daughter Hilary was born. Fuchs organised an expedition to investigate the [[Lake Rukwa]] basin in southern [[Tanzania]] in 1937. He returned in 1938 to find that his second daughter, Rosalind, had severe cerebral palsy. Rosalind died in 1945. His son, Peter, was born in 1940.

At the age of thirty, he enrolled in the [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]], and was dispatched to the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] from 1942 to July 1943. He returned home and was posted to London at Second Army headquarters in a civil affairs position. The Second Army was transferred to [[Portsmouth]] for the [[Normandy landings|D-Day]] landings, and Fuchs eventually reached Germany in time to see the release of prisoners from the [[Belsen concentration camp]]. He governed the [[Plön]] district in [[Schleswig-Holstein]] until October 1946, when he was discharged from military service with the rank of [[Major (UK)|Major]].

Fuchs was involved with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (now the [[British Antarctic Survey]]) beginning in 1947, when he applied for a geologist position. The institute's goal was to promote Britain's claims to Antarctica, and secondarily to support scientific research. In 1950 Fuchs was asked to develop the new London scientific bureau of the Survey, to plan research in the Antarctic and support research publication. After the trans-Antarctic expedition he become director of the Survey, a position he held until 1973.

From 1982 through 1984, Fuchs was president of the [[Royal Geographical Society]]. He became a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] in 1974.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2001.0012|title=Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs. 11 February 1908 - 11 November 1999: Elected F.R.S. 1974|journal=[[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]]|volume=47|pages=203|year=2001|last1=Laws|first1=R.M|doi-access=}}</ref>

==Family==
{{Unsourced|section|date=December 2022}}
In 1933, he had married his cousin Joyce Connell, who had accompanied him on several expeditions. They had three children: Hilary (1936-2002) Rosalind (1938–1945), and Peter (born 1940). Joyce, Lady Fuchs, died on 27 April 1990 in [[Oxford]], of a heart attack, aged 83.

The next year, in 1991, he married [[Eleanor Honnywill]], his former personal assistant at the British Antarctic Survey, in [[Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea|Kensington and Chelsea]], London. 

==Death==
Sir Vivian Fuchs died in [[Cambridge]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.findmypast.com/BirthsMarriagesDeaths.jsp |title=Deaths and Marriages England and Wales 1984–2006 |access-date=12 February 2009 |archive-date=4 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104084417/http://www.findmypast.com/BirthsMarriagesDeaths.jsp |url-status=dead }}</ref> on 11 November 1999, aged 91.

==The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition==
{{main|Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition}}
Fuchs is best known as the leader of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, a [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]]-sponsored expedition that completed the first overland crossing of [[Antarctica]]. Planning for the expedition began in 1953, and envisioned the use of [[Sno-Cat]] tractors to cross the continent in 100 days, starting at the [[Weddell Sea]], ending at the [[Ross Sea]], and crossing the [[South Pole]].

Fuchs and his party arrived in Antarctica in January 1957 after camp had been set up. The party departed from [[Ernest Shackleton|Shackleton]] Base on 24 November 1957. During the trek, a variety of scientific data were collected from [[seismic]] soundings and [[gravimetric]] readings. Scientists established the thickness of ice at the pole, and the existence of a land mass beneath the ice. On 2 March 1958, Fuchs and company completed the 100-day trip by reaching [[Scott Base]], having travelled 2,158 miles.

In 1958, he was knighted by [[Queen Elizabeth II]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=41388 |date=16 May 1958 |page=3090}}</ref> He co-wrote, with Sir [[Edmund Hillary]], ''The Crossing of Antarctica''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fuchs |first1=Vivian |author-link1=Vivian Fuchs | last2=Hillary | first2=Edmund | author-link2=Edmund Hillary |date=1958 |title=The Crossing of Antarctica |location=London | publisher=Cassell & Company|oclc = 963764022}}</ref> In 1959 he was awarded the [[Hans Egede Medal]] by the [[Royal Danish Geographical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://tidsskrift.dk/index.php/geografisktidsskrift/article/view/4567/8563 |title=(in Danish) |access-date=9 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210042432/https://tidsskrift.dk/index.php/geografisktidsskrift/article/view/4567/8563 |archive-date=10 February 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Legacy==
* The [[Fuchs Medal]] was created in 1973 for "''outstanding devotion to the British Antarctic Survey's interests, beyond the call of normal duty, by men or women who are or were members of the Survey, or closely connected with its work.''" It is awarded to one or two people per year.

* [[Fuchs Dome]] in the [[Shackleton Range]], Antarctica.

* [[Fuchs Ice Piedmont]] on [[Adelaide Island]], Antarctica.

== References ==
{{reflist}}
 
==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{cite odnb|first=Peter|last=Clarkson|title=Fuchs, Sir Vivian Ernest (1908–1999) |id=73181}}
* "Scott Base Turns Out To Greet Dr. Fuchs." ''[[The Times]]'', 3 March 1958; pg. 9.
* [http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/basclub/fuchsmedal.html Fuchs medal named in his honour] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091117202756/http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/basclub/fuchsmedal.html |date=17 November 2009 }}
* [http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/people/fuchs/ Scott Polar Research Institute – Obituary of Vivian Fuchs]
*[http://www.sirvivianfuchs.com/biography/index.html Sir Vivian Fuchs website biography]

{{RGSPresidents}}
{{Polar exploration|state=collapsed}}
{{FRS 1974}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Vivian}}
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:British Antarctic Survey]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:English polar explorers]]
[[Category:Cambridgeshire Regiment officers]]
[[Category:English explorers]]
[[Category:English people of German descent]]
[[Category:British explorers of Antarctica]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society (Statute 12)]]
[[Category:People educated at Brighton College]]
[[Category:People from Freshwater, Isle of Wight]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Polar Medal]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the Isle of Wight]]