Edward William Bingham

Edward William Bingham was born on 2 January 1901 at Dungannon, County Tyrone. He studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1926, and was commissioned in the Royal Navy. Shortly afterwards, he volunteered as medical officer for the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, 1930-1931 (leader Henry George Watkins), participating in sledging journeys to survey and chart parts of the east coast of Greenland. In 1932, Bingham was appointed to HMS Challenger, a ship conducting Hydrographic surveys off the coast of Labrador, where he over-wintered and became more familiar with dog driving.

As medical officer on the British Graham Land Expedition, 1934-1937 (leader John Rymill), Bingham participated in a major sledging journey across Graham Land with Rymill, finally confirming Graham Land to be a peninsula rather than an archipelago as suggested by the aviators Sir Hubert Wilkins and Lincoln Ellsworth.

Between 1945 and 1947, he led the newly-formed Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), established to continue and expand the work of the British naval expedition, 1943-1944, also known as Operation Tabarin. As leader of the survey, he passed on sledging and camping techniques to a new generation of British polar explorers for which he was awarded an OBE in 1947. From 1948 to 1952, he was principal medical officer of the Royal Naval Air Station at Eglinton, advancing to captain in 1951. After serving as fleet medical officer in HMS Vanguard, he was appointed principal medical officer at the Royal Naval Air Station at Lee-on-Solent, retiring from the Navy in 1957. He died on 1 September 1993.