Warwick Deacock

Who is Warwick Deacock?

Warwick Deacock was a British-born adventurer and expedition leader who organised and led the 1965 Southern Indian Ocean Expedition that achieved the first ascent of Heard Island's Big Ben (Mawson Peak). Born in London in 1926, he joined the Royal Marines in 1943 and earned the Commando Green Beret, later serving with the Special Air Service in Northern Malaya and Oman in the 1950s before leaving the military. He migrated to Australia with his family in 1959. After an initial attempt on Heard Island in 1963 was abandoned in the face of blizzards and lost supplies, Deacock raised substantial funds to mount a second attempt, chartering the 19-metre crayfishing schooner Patanela, skippered by the noted Himalayan and high-latitude sailor H.W. Tilman. On 25 January 1965 Deacock and four companions, including expedition doctor Grahame Budd, reached the summit of Big Ben, becoming the first people to climb Australia's highest mountain. Deacock went on to organise further expeditions and adventure-travel ventures, and worked for the Australian Antarctic Division. He received the Royal Geographical Society's J.P. Thomson Medal in 1992, the Australian Geographic Society's Adventurer of the Year Gold Medal in 1993, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1997. He died in 2017.

Sources: Wikipedia, 'Warwick Deacock' · 'VIDEO: Australia's first ascent of Big Ben', Australian Geographic, October 2016 · Philip Temple, 'The Sea and the Snow: The South Indian Ocean Expedition to Heard Island' (1966)