Surrounded by a frozen landscape with the stench of penguin guano clinging to his clothes, hair and skin, handyman Graham Gillies raised his hammer to tackle one of the world’s most unusual repair jobs. Normally the self-employed carpenter would be in more comfortable surroundings tackling jobs for householders around his West Linton home or carrying out conservation work on aging Edinburgh properties. Here, though, he was balancing on a roof at the ends of the earth, fixing damage caused by the changing climate on historic buildings which once provided cover for a secret wartime mission.
Work involved carrying out roof repairs to a wooden hut at Detaille Island (Image: Contributed: UK Antarctic Heritage Trust) His challenge was to carry out crucial repairs to buildings linked to the mysterious Operation Tabarin, when daring men were sent to the harsh but beautiful frozen landscape of Antarctica on a double-edged Second World War objective. Led by Aberdeenshire-born James Marr, a marine zoologist, their work spanned meteorology, topographical and geological surveying, biological research, glaciological studies and sea ice observation. (Image: UK Antarctic Heritage Trust) But central to the covert wartime mission were their orders to ward off claims to the region from Chile and Argentina.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the extraordinary wartime operation which laid the foundations for the British Antarctic Survey, which carries out crucial nature and scientific rese.