Vivian Ernest Fuchs was born on 11 February 1908 at Freshwater, Isle of Wight. While an undergraduate at St. John's College, Cambridge, he joined the Cambridge East Greenland Expedition in 1929, under the leadership of his tutor James Mann Wordie. On graduating, he joined and led a series of archaeological and geological expeditions to East Africa between 1930 and 1938, and was awarded his doctorate in 1936. During the Second World War he served as an infantry officer in Africa and Europe and was demobilized with the rank of major.
In 1947 Fuchs was appointed field commander and geologist of the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey (FIDS), serving for two years at Base E on Stonington Island where he learnt dog-sledging and travel techniques. On returning to Britain in 1950, he was appointed director of FIDS Scientific Bureau, developing a programme for an effective scientific use of Britain's Antarctic stations. In 1955, he took leave from FIDS to organize the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958, planning to cross Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. Setting out from Shackleton Base on the Weddell Sea, he reached the South Pole on 19 January 1958. Here he met Sir Edmund Hillary who had laid depots in support of the remainder of his journey to Scott Base, Ross Island, where he arrived on 2 March.
Following his return to London, Fuchs was knighted and received many honours from scientific societies, including the special gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. After completing with Hillary the official account of the expedition The crossing of Antarctica in 1958, Fuchs returned to FIDS in 1959, which under his direction became the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1961 and was incorporated in the Natural Environment Research Council in 1967. Retiring in 1973, he remained active in polar and scientific affairs, serving as president of the Royal Geographical Society between 1982 and 1984. He died on 11 November 1999 at Cambridge.
Published work A time to speak, an autobiography by (Sir) Vivian Ernest Fuchs, Anthony Nelson Ltd. Oswestry (1990) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Fuchs] Of ice and men; the story of the British Antarctic Survey, 1943-1973, by (Sir) Vivian Ernest Fuchs, Anthony Nelson Ltd. Oswestry (1982) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(091)[pub.1982]
From the guide to the Vivian Fuchs collection, 1948-1969, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
