Lost researcher’s remains found on Antarctic glacier after 66 years

The remains of a meteorologist who fell to his death on an Antarctic glacier 66 years ago have been found and brought back to the UK.

At 25 years old, Dennis “Tink” Bell was on a two-year stint in the Antarctic for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, the predecessor of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), in July 1959. He was trekking in a two-person team across a glacier on King George Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula, when disaster struck.

Bell fell down a crevasse, but survived, and was able to call out to his colleague for help. When a rope was lowered, he tied it to his belt and was almost pulled to safety when the belt snapped, sending him plummeting once again. This time, he didn’t call out.

His colleague managed to make it back to base, albeit with frostbitten hands, but weather conditions made any further rescue attempts too dangerous.

Ieuan Hopkins at BAS says working in the Antarctic in the 1950s and 60s was extremely dangerous and, sadly, deaths weren’t uncommon. Bodies of other BAS staff remain lost to this day.

“There was an average of 1 per cent chance that you wouldn’t come back,” says Hopkins. “It’s a really extreme environment. It’s a really dangerous environment. We would lose people.”

Earlier this year, a team from the Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station on King George Island discovered a number of bone fragments on the surface of the glacier, having been churned as it moved over the intervening years.

“It’s a big tumble dryer, a glacier, so things are always being moved around,” says Hopkins. “I think the fact that we’re talking about bone fragments is some indication of the sort of forces that are involved.”

The remains were transported to the Falkland Islands on the Antarctic research ship Sir David Attenborough and then on to the UK in the hands of the Royal Air Force.

Denise Syndercombe Court at King’s College London identified the body by comparing DNA samples with others from his brother David Bell and sister Valerie Kelly. They were “shocked and amazed” that their brother had finally been found, Bell said in a statement.

The Polish team also discovered hundreds of personal items thought to have belonged to Bell, including the remains of radio equipment, a torch, ski poles, an inscribed wristwatch, a knife and an ebonite pipe stem.