The unique and important Polar “Antarctic” Explorer and Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey founding member’s ‘Antarctic 1946’ Polar Medalist and 1957 Order of the British Empire, and Second World War Atlantic Convoy Escort Work Destroyer Medical Officer’s Mention in Despatches group awarded to Dr and Surgeon Lieutenant Commander R.S. Slessor, O.B.E., Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, and sometime Deputy Governor of the Falkland Islands. Slessor was a pre-war medical graduate of Kiel University, Aberdeen University, and Trinity College Dublin, an unusual distinction, who had then practiced in Plymouth, Berlin and as a gynaecologist at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. With the war he received a commission in October 1941 and was aboard the destroyer Wanderer guarding the Atlantic Convoys in the North Western Approaches, being decorated with a Mention in Despatches in June 1942 for his skilful amputation of a seaman’s arm during a storm. He then received an appointment to the Women’s Royal Naval Service Hospital in Vincent Square, London, where he put his gynaecological skills to good practice, and worked as the deputy to legendary polar explorer, Surgeon Commander EW 'Ted' Bingham. On Bingham being appointed to return to the Antarctic as the leader of the newly formed Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), he appointed Slessor as his second-in-command, and they went South in 1946. Slessor had in the meantime vetted some former wartime members of the Special Air Service Regiment for the expedition, namely Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Mayne, D.S.O.***, Major Mike Saddler, M.C., M.M., and Major John Tonkin, M.C. All were highly decorated wartime special forces soldiers, however only the latter two, Saddler and Tonkin passed, and it was Slessor who vetoed Paddy Mayne owing to his unpredictable personality! Slessor was given the task of travelling to Labrador to the convey some 55 huskies South, no mean feat in rough seas during the voyage down. On New Year's Day, 1946, Slessor stepped ashore to begin a long association with the Falkland Islands. In 1946 he was medical officer in the team that built, and wintered at, the first British base on Stonington Island. There, he cared for both dogs and men, and led a pioneering traverse along the crest of the Antarctic Peninsula as far north as the Antarctic Circle. The highest mountain in that area is now known as Slessor Peak. Slessor’s traverse had involved him being part of the first major sledging journey pioneering the route onto the Graham Land Plateau out of Stonington between November 1946 and January 1947, about two months in the field. For this pioneering journey there were initially two teams, but the second team under Ted Bingham returned to base early whilst the other group continued. This team was led by Slessor with Mike Saddler as navigator, John Joyce as geologist, and Douglas Mason as surveyor. They covered about 300 miles out and back in frequently poor conditions, reaching as far as Slessor Peak (2370 m). This exploratory journey was a key foundation for the traverse linking Hope Bay to Stonington in 1947-48 which proved that the Graham Land peninsula was a continuous feature. Slessor was awarded the Polar Medal for his services. His Polar Medal with Antarctic 1946 clasp, one of nine, was earned specifically for his services a Marguerite Bay, being gazetted in July 1953, and presented to him by Her Majesty The Queen on 19th July 1955. Slessor’s Antarctic diary is now housed in the British Antarctic Survey Archives. Slessor’s liking for the Antarctic, his experience, discretion and judgement made him the ideal person to accompany and guide Ted Bingham's successor, the future Sir Vivian Fuchs, on the latter's introductory tour of the Dependencies at the end of 1947 and in the early part of 1948. Slessor then became the senior medical officer to the government of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies. On occasion he acted as Deputy Governor of the Falklands Islands, as member of the ExCo and LegCo, and of Stanley Town Council. Recognised initially with the award of the Coronation Medal 1953, he was ultimately appointed an Officer of the Civil Division of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in June 1957.
Group of 7: The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Officer, O.B.E., 2nd type, Civil Division; 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence Medal; War Medal with Mention in Despatches Oakleaf; Polar Medal, EIIR Britt. Omn. bust (1953-1955), with clasp: Antarctic 1946; (DR. ROBERT S. SLESSOR. M.B., C.H.B.); Coronation Medal 1953. Court mounted swing style as worn.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Together with the following quantity of original documentation and ephemera:
Warrant of Appointment to The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, issued in the name of Robert Stewart Slessor Esquire, on his appointment as an Ordinary Officer of the Civil Division, dated 13 June 1957. This framed.
The recipient’s matching tunic medal ribbon bar.
Admiralty Appointment Warrant for Robert Stewart Slessor Esquire M.B. Ch.B. etc to be appointed a Temporary Surgeon Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 4 February 1943 with seniority from 17 October 1941. This framed.
Original Admiralty Appointment Document for Surgeon Lieutenant Slessor to be a Probationary Temporary Surgeon Lieutenant aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Wanderer, and to repair on board the ship at Chatham on 24 November 1941.
Antarctic Club Certificate of Membership issued to Dr. R. Stewart Slessor, MB ChB, who was admitted to the club on 12 December 1847, for his work in having served with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey from 1946 to 1947. Certificate No.160, this is signed in ink by the President: ‘Philip L. Brocklehurst’, this being Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst, 2nd Baronet, who is known particularly as a member of the Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition in Antarctica of 1907 to 1909; and also signed by the Secretary: ‘J.H. Mather’ for Commander John Hugh Mather D.S.O., V.R.D., R.N.V.R., previously a member of the ship's party aboard the Terra Nova during the Robert Falcon Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition of 1910 to 1913. This framed.
Menu Card for the dinner held aboard H.M. Yacht Britannia on 7 January 1957 on the occasion that Prince Phillip the Duke of Edinburgh visited Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. This housed in an On Her Majesty’s Service envelope.
A small quantity of reproduced images of Slessor or relating to his carer, one being a fantastic sledge shot of him when in Antarctica.
Robert Stewart Slessor was born on 2nd November 1912 in Fraserburgh, Scotland, the son of a local physician, Dr Robert Slessor, he was educated at Fraserburgh Academy, followed by Aberdeen Grammar School, Kiel University, Aberdeen University, and Trinity College Dublin, gaining bachelors degrees in medicine and surgery. Prior to the outbreak of the Second World War he practiced in Plymouth, Berlin and as a gynaecologist at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, where he became an assistant master.
With the Second World War, Slessor was appointed to a commission as a probationary temporary Surgeon Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 17th October 1941, being then officially gazetted on 15th May 1942, he having passed his probationary period. In the meantime he had been appointed to the destroyer H.M.S. Wanderer, and saw service aboard her in the North Western Approaches of the North Atlantic on convoy escort duty. In all he saw some 18 months service aboard her, and in this period was awarded a Mention in Despatches in the King’s Birthday Honours List, as published in the London Gazette for 2nd June 1942. This was awarded to him for his skilful amputation of a seaman’s arm during a storm whilst serving as a temporary Surgeon Lieutenant aboard Wanderer in the North Atlantic.
In April 1943, Slessor was appointed to the Women’s Royal Naval Service Hospital in Vincent Square, London, becoming deputy to the polar explorer Surgeon Commander EW 'Ted' Bingham who was its officer-in-charge. Slessor ultimately held the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant Commander.
Bingham was a legendary explorer, who having originally joined the Royal Navy in 1928 he then volunteered to accompany Gino Watkins’ expedition to east coast and interior of Greenland in 1930, in what was known as the British Arctic Air Route Expedition. He was in the party that established a meteorological station on the ice cap. He then went South as part of the British Graham Land Expedition in Antarctica during 1934 to 1937 as medical officer and in charge of the dog sled teams. In 1945 Bingham was seconded to the Colonial Office to lead the newly formed Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), and it was Bingham who encouraged Slessor to follow in his footsteps.
In 1945 the Colonial Office asked the SAS for “able bodied men with the ability to survive in difficult conditions and to work with a survey team in the South Atlantic”.
On Bingham’s appointment to command the expedition, he asked Slessor to be his second-in-command, and the process of selection then began. Three members of the Special Air Service Regiment applied for selection to the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, namely Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Mayne, D.S.O.***, Major Mike Saddler, M.C., M.M., and Major John Tonkin, M.C. All were highly decorated wartime special forces soldiers, however only the latter two, Saddler and Tonkin passed, and it was Slessor who vetoed Paddy Mayne owing to his unpredictable personality.
Having overseen the selection process, Slessor then set off to Labrador almost immediately to buy a second batch of sledge dogs to boost the small stock that Bingham himself had selected for Operation Tabarin* at Hope Bay in 1944. Slessor and his companion, Tom O'Sullivan, knew nothing about dogs, or sledging, but they did their best in buying dogs from various coastal settlements, and in getting fifty-four of them, plus ten newly born puppies, to Port Stanley aboard Trepassey.
The challenges faced by Robert Slessor and Tom O'Sullivan with the care of huskies onboard ship were considerable: 'The 55 huskies, including five pups born in St. John’s, were loaded onto Trepassey for her departure on 20th November 1945 for Recife, the first port of call on the way to the Falklands. During the first three days of the voyage the pens were constantly awash and could not be cleaned, but when the weather improved Slessor and O’Sullivan were able to implement a standard care routine. The pens were opened at 0400 hours and the animals brought forward to give them fresh drinking water, followed by food at 0700 hours. After the pens were cleaned, a bucket of fresh drinking water was hung in each and the occupants reinstalled. The deck was then washed down and scrubbed, and about 20 dogs at a time were allowed on the foredeck in the afternoon sun if the crew were not doing maintenance work.
For food, the huskies were given whale meat stored in cod oil and herrings. A daily ration of one pound of meat and three herrings for each husky was thrown onto the deck from the bridge in the hope that each would get enough. This first part of the trip occurred without any major incident … Much distress was experienced by the vessel’s personnel . . . when many of the barrels of dog meat, which had been packed in cod oil, became putrid and burst in the hold. The gas sent off from the decomposed whale meat permeated all the cabins, and in the tropical heat sleeping in them was impossible.
... The contribution made by these Labrador huskies and their offspring to the work of the FIDS and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which replaced the former in 1962 after the Antarctic Treaty became operational the previous year, was immeasurable.
On New Year's Day, 1946, Slessor stepped ashore to begin a long association with the Falkland Islands.
In 1946 he was medical officer in the team that built, and wintered at, the first British base on Stonington Island. There, he cared for both dogs and men, and led a pioneering traverse along the crest of the Antarctic Peninsula as far north as the Antarctic Circle. The highest mountain in that area is now known as Slessor Peak. Slessor’s traverse had involved him being part of the first major sledging journey pioneering the route onto the Graham Land Plateau out of Stonington between November 1946 and January 1947, about two months in the field. For this pioneering journey there were initially two teams, but the second team under Ted Bingham returned to base early whilst the other group continued. This team was led by Slessor with Mike Saddler as navigator, John Joyce as geologist, and Douglas Mason as surveyor. They covered about 300 miles out and back in frequently poor conditions, reaching as far as Slessor Peak (2370 m). This exploratory journey was a key foundation for the traverse linking Hope Bay to Stonington in 1947-48 which proved that the Graham Land peninsula was a continuous feature.
Slessor was awarded the Polar Medal for his services. His Polar Medal with Antarctic 1946 clasp, earned specifically for his services a Marguerite Bay, was announced in the London Gazette for 17th July 1953, and was presented to him by Her Majesty The Queen on 19th July 1955. In all some 9 ‘Antarctic 1946’ clasps were awarded.
Slessor’s Antarctic diary is now housed in the British Antarctic Survey Archives.
His liking for the Antarctic, his experience, discretion and judgement made him the ideal person to accompany and guide Bingham's successor, Vivian Fuchs, on the latter's introductory tour of the Dependencies at the end of 1947 and in the early part of 1948. Sir Vivian Fuchs later said of Slessor: 'He had volunteered to come south for the trip to initiate me into my new responsibilities, and was indeed a great strength. He was a sturdy, active man, who always found something that need doing and did it. His equable temperament suited admirably our rather strange conditions. Purposeful, sensible, helpful, never did he overplay his hand.'
Slessor had found the Falkland Islands much to his liking, and in 1948 he returned once more, as senior medical officer to the government of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies. He warmly supported Governor Clifford’s acquisition and use of aircraft for medical purposes, and he enterprisingly used his Kiel connections to recruit German camp-dentists at a time of shortage in Britain. As SMO, Slessor was responsible for the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, and for its medical staff.
Slessor’s many years of public service as Deputy Governor of the Falklands Islands, member of the ExCo and LegCo, and of Stanley Town Council, were recognised initially with the award of the Coronation Medal 1953, and by his appointment as an Officer of the Civil Division of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, as published in the London Gazette for 13th June 1957.
On the Falklands Islands, Slessor is remembered as a caring doctor and a good administrator, a good host, and the man who cut quite a dash in his Rolls Royce motor car. Governor Haskard recalled that Slessor 'knew just about everyone, but was strictly professional in keeping his own counsel, a man regarded with respect and affection'.
On 7th September 1951 in Dublin, Slessor married Sheila Margaret Brough, a nurse whom he had known at the Rotunda. They had no children and she died on 10th May 1956. Despite this loss, he remained in the Falkland Islands until he retired on 31st May 1968 and was given the kind of ceremonial send off aboard RMS Darwin which is normally accorded only to departing governors.
Slessor made a new home in Javea, Spain, where he was a keen gardener, an enthusiastic walker, and an exceptional host. He died on 8th July 1985, after walking in the Cairngorms, and was cremated in Aberdeen. His ashes were interred in Stanley cemetery, alongside those of his wife.
