Frank Debenham

Frank Debenham, OBE (1883–1965) was Emeritus Professor of Geography at the Cambridge University and first director of the Scott Polar Research Institute. Born in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia in 1883, the second of five children of John Willmott Debenham and Edith Cleveland. He graduated from Sydney University and was one of a group of three geologists on Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913). From January to March 1911 Debenham, along with three other expedition members (Griffith Taylor, Charles Wright (physicist) and Edgar Evans), explored and mapped the western mountains of Victoria Land (the western journey) performing scientific studies and geological observations.

After service in Salonika during the First World War, he went to Cambridge where he became a fellow of Gonville and Caius College and lecturer in cartography. In 1920, with the help of surplus funds raised by public donations in response to the tragedy, Debenham founded the Scott Polar Research Institute (Cambridge University), as a repository of polar information and a centre from which future expeditions could draw on support and experience. Debenham had developed the idea of such a learning centre in 1912 while in Antarctica. He was unpaid director of the Institute from 1920 to 1946.

In 1931, Debenham was appointed Professor of Geography at Cambridge University. He was a prolific author. His published works include: "In the Antarctic: Stories of Scott's Last Expedition 1952"; "Antarctica - The story of a continent"; "Discovery & Exploration"; "Kalahari Sand"; "Nyasaland"; "The way to Ilala"; "Study of African Swamp"; "Simple Surveying"; "The use of Geography"; "Map Making"; "The World is Round"; "Space - The Global Atlas".

He died in November 1965.

Further reading

* "The Quiet Land - The Diaries of Frank Debenham", edited by June Debenham. Bluntisham Books: Huntingdon, 1992.