Sir George Hubert Wilkins
Wilkins as a young cinematographer. For 50 years
he would carry a movie camera on his adventures
George Hubert Wilkins
was born on 31 October 1888 at Mount Bryan, South Australia, 100 miles
north of Adelaide. He was the youngest of 13 children. His upbringing,
on the lonely farm at the edge of the Australian outback where he
witnessed devastating droughts, was a motivation for his life's work. In
1903 his parents moved to Adelaide and Wilkins enrolled in the
University but never completed his courses. He became interested in
cinematography and moved to Sydney where he worked in Australia's
pioneer film industry. He then left for England to work as a newsreel
cinematographer for Gaumont.
Wilkins with his camera aboard the expedition ship
Karluk. In the Arctic he developed his revolutionary ideas for polar
travel.
After moving to
London in 1909 Wilkins worked as a Gaumont cinematographer covering many
international events including the Balkans War in 1912. But he still
wanted to become a polar explorer. He was offered his first trip to the
Arctic as cinematographer with the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913
led by Vilhjamur Stefansson. He walked thousands of miles over
unexplored territory, learnt to live off the polar ice and developed his
revolutionary ideas for polar travel. In 1916 he returned to Point
Barrow, Alaska, to learn the world had been at war for two years.
Wilkins in World War One. Unarmed he led troops
into battle and became the only official Australian photographer in any
war to receive a combat decoration.
When he learnt about
the war, Wilkins went to France where he was appointed an official
photographer with the Australian War Records Office. From November 1917
until the end of the War Wilkins was responsible for Australia's
photographic record of fighting at the Western Front. He constantly
risked his life working forward of the front line and refused to carry
firearms. He became the only Australian official photographer, in any
war, to receive a combat decoration. He was awarded the Military Cross
twice. At the end of the war he travelled to Turkey to make a
photographic record of the battlefields of Gallipoli.
When he returned to England from Gallipoli,
Wilkins learnt that the Australian government had offered 10,000 pounds
for the first All-Australian crew to fly an aeroplane from England to
Australia. The Blackburn Aircraft Company, which had developed a long
range bomber during the war, had entered one of their planes. Wilkins
was appointed navigator
Wilkins replaced the Australian aviator Charles
Kingsford Smith in the England Australia
Air Race, but the Blackburn Kangaroo plane crashed with mechanical
problems in Crete.
With the other
members of the crew, the Blackburn Kangaroo left England on 21 November
1919. Problems were experienced with the engines and the plane was
forced down over France. Repairs were made and the flight continued, but
eventually, still with engine problems, the plane crashed landed in
Crete.
After the Air Race Wilkins returned to
England determined to continue polar exploration. He joined Dr John Cope
on the Imperial Antarctic Expedition. It was Wilkins first trip to the
Antarctic, but the expedition lacked funds and achieved little. Next
Wilkins was appointed Naturalist on what was to become Sir Ernest
Shackleton's last expedition to the Antarctic. This expedition left
London on the Quest, a ship that had been hastily prepared and
continually gave trouble. As it was being repaired in South America,
Wilkins went on ahead to South Georgia Island to photograph the flora
and fauna. When the Quest arrived six weeks later Wilkins learned that
Sir Ernest Shackleton had died on the voyage.
Wilkins work as
Naturalist on the Shackleton expedition so impressed the British Museum
of Natural History that they offered him an expedition of his own. The
Museum wanted to collect flora and fauna specimens from outback
Australia and the islands of Torres Strait. This became the Wilkins
Australia and Islands Expedition and for two years Wilkins travelled to
remote areas of Queensland, Northern Territory and the Torres Strait
filming, photographing and collecting specimens for the Museum. At the
end of the two years he wrote to the Museum saying he wanted to continue
his work in the polar regions.
Wilkins planned to fly over
the unexplored areas north of Alaska. He first purchased two Fokker
aircraft but found them too large for landing on ice. He sold one to
Charles Kingsford Smith who renamed it the Southern Cross and it became
the first plane to fly the Pacific Ocean. Wilkins bought a Lockheed
Vega. With pilot Carl Ben Eielson he flew across the Arctic Sea, from
Barrow in Alaska to Spitsbergen, Norway. It was the first time such a
plane flight had been made and the two men became international
celebrities. Wilkins was knighted and chose to be known as Sir Hubert,
rather than Sir George.
Wilkins was the first person to fly a plane in Antarctica. Unable to
find runways long enough he was beaten in the race to be the first to
fly to the South Pole.
With the same Vega
they had flown over the top of the world Wilkins and Eielson now
travelled south to explore Antarctica. They arrived at Deception Island
on the Graham Land Peninsula in November 1928. Their flights exploring
the Graham Land Peninsula were the first time anyone had flown a plane
in Antarctica. Wilkins had planned, if possible, to fly to the South
Pole, but on Deception Island he was unable to find a runway long enough
to get the Vega into the air with sufficient fuel to complete the
distance. Nevertheless it was the first time in history undiscovered
land was mapped from a plane.
Wilkins (left) aboard the Graf Zeppelin when it made the first round the
world flight in 1929.
Returning to America after his pioneering
flight in Antarctica, Wilkins was invited to be aboard the largest
airship of the period, the Graf Zeppelin, as it attempted the first
around the world flight. Wilkins agreed and joined the flight to make a
film record. The Graf Zeppelin flew from Lakehurst, New York, across the
Atlantic to Germany. From Germany it made the longest non-stop flight up
until that time - from Germany, across Russia to Japan. From Japan it
crossed the Pacific and America to return to New York. Six years later
Wilkins would be aboard the airship Hindenburg as it made its maiden
voyage from Germany to America.
Wilkins' Nautilus submarine in the Arctic in 1931. His pioneering
submarine expedition under the Arctic ice was 25 years ahead of its
time.
After a second season
flying his Lockheed Vega in Antarctica Wilkins planned his most
ambitious expedition. To take a submarine under the Arctic ice to the
North Pole. Constant delays prevented the submarine getting away on time
to reach the polar ice cap before winter and the submarine constantly
broke down. Still determined to prove that submarine travel under the
ice was possible, Wilkins continued north to the edge of the ice pack to
discover his submarine had malfunctioned again. Nevertheless, with his
partly disabled submarine he was still able to sail under the ice to
prove it could be achieved.
After his Arctic submarine expedition,
which many people considered a failure because he did not reach the
North Pole, Wilkins organised three expeditions to the Antarctic to
assist American millionaire explorer, Lincoln Ellsworth become the first
person to fly across the Antarctic continent. When Russian aviators went
missing while flying from Russia to America via the North Pole, Wilkins
was called in to head the search.
Wilkins Catalina Flying Boat during his search for missing Russian
aviators in 1937
In 1938 he returned
to Antarctic with Lincoln Ellsworth, again assisting in the discovery of
new land. At the outbreak of World War Two Wilkins immediately offered
his services to the Australian Government, but it had no need for a
polar explorer, now aged over 50.
Wilkins next offered
his service to the U.S. Army which retained him to teach Arctic survival
skill to U.S. soldiers. After the war he remained as a consultant to the
U.S. Army. The United States Navy were developing nuclear submarines for
sub ice travel in the Arctic and consulted Wilkins on his pioneering
1931 expedition. Wilkins died on 30 November 1958 in a hotel room in
Massachusetts. As a mark of respect the U.S. Navy took his ashes to the
North Pole in the nuclear submarine Skate. On 17 March 1959 the Skate
became the first submarine to surface at the Pole, where it held a
memorial service and scattered the ashes of Sir Hubert Wilkins.
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