(Gilbert) Eric Douglas was born on 6 December 1902 in Victoria, Australia. He joined the Australian Flying Corps as an air mechanic, qualifying as a pilot officer in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1927 and receiving his commission two years later. He served as second pilot in RRS Discovery on the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, 1929-1931 (leader Sir Douglas Mawson), flying a Gypsy Moth floatplane over the coast of East Antarctica.
Douglas returned to Antarctica with the Discovery Investigations, 1935-1937 (leader George Edward Raven Deacon), to search for the aviators Lincoln Ellsworth and Herbert Hollick-Kenyon in the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea. Retiring from the Royal Australian Air Force in 1948 with the rank of group captain, he died on 4 August 1970.
From the guide to the Eric Douglas collection, 1929-1936, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
