Stuart Campbell

Who is Stuart Campbell?

Stuart Alexander Caird Campbell was an Australian air force officer and polar aviator who led the first Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) party to establish a station on Heard Island. Born on 27 March 1903 in Darling Point, New South Wales, he studied electrical and mechanical engineering at the University of Sydney before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1926. In 1929 he was selected as senior pilot for Sir Douglas Mawson's British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE), flying a float-mounted Gipsy Moth biplane lowered onto the water by cable from the expedition ship, making him one of the earliest pilots to fly in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters. Nearly two decades later, as a Group Captain, Campbell was appointed leader and chief executive officer of the first ANARE expedition, which established a research station at Atlas Cove on Heard Island in December 1947. On 26 December 1947 he raised the Australian flag there and formally claimed the island for Australia, improvising a ceremony since his orders gave no instructions on how to proceed. He later served as an aviation adviser to the government of Thailand. Stuart Campbell died on 7 March 1988.

Sources: Wikipedia, 'Stuart Campbell (explorer)' · Australian Antarctic Program, 'ANARE is created' · Australian Antarctic Program, 'Founding Mawson — Australia's first Antarctic station', Magazine Issue 22, 2012