Dmitriy Semenovich Girev was born on 1 June 1889 in Aleksandrovsk, Sakhalin, the son of a convict. In 1897, his family moved to Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, where he was employed as a trainee at an electric station. In his spare time Girev became a skilful dog driver, and in 1910, was recommended to Cecil Meares, who was in Nikolayevsk buying dogs for the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913 (leader Robert Falcon Scott). Meares recruited Girev for the expedition, and together they purchased thirty-three dogs before joining the expedition in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Girev was a member of the support party which accompanied Scott's Polar Party as far as the lower depot of the Beardmore Glacier, before turning back with the dogs on 11 December 1911. He was also one of the team that discovered the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers in November 1912.
After the expedition, he spent almost two years in New Zealand before returning to Siberia, where he was employed in various capacities in gold mining and dredging. In 1930, he was arrested by agents of the NKVD and taken to Vladivostok, where he remained under arrest for eighteen months. On his way home after his release, Girev died of a heart attack in December 1932.
From the guide to the Dmitriy Girev collection, 1913, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
