The remains of a British scientist who died in Antarctica 66 years ago have been revealed by a melting glacier.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) says Dennis "Tink" Bell fell into a crevasse during a glacier survey at Admiralty Bay on King George Island on July 26, 1959.
His body was never recovered, but this January, a Polish Antarctic expedition discovered human remains in a rocky area at the front of the Ecology Glacier along with over 200 personal items, including the remains of radio equipment, a flashlight, ski poles, an inscribed Erguel wristwatch, a Mora knife, and an ebonite pipe stem.
The remains were transported to the Falkland Islands on the BAS Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough and handed to a coroner who brought them to London where they were sent for DNA testing and confirmed to belong to Bell.
Bell's brother David, who now lives in Australia, says he and his sister Valerie are "shocked and amazed" by the discovery, saying efforts to bring Dennis home "have helped us come to terms with the tragic loss of our brilliant brother.”
Tragically, Bell survived the initial fall and was able to secure a rope thrown down by his teammates around his belt. After his belt broke during the rescue attempt, he fell a second time, and crews were unable to get a response from him.
The meteorologist had joined the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (the predecessor of BAS) to work in Antarctica in 1958. He worked on a small UK base about 75 miles (120k) off the northern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula with a small team of men. Base reports say Bell was "known on base for his humour and larger than life character."
Details of the incident that led to Bell's death are outlined in the book Of Ice and Men by Sir Vivian Fuchs.
