Hartley Travers Ferrar was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1879. He read natural sciences at Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge. He joined the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904 (leader Robert Falcon Scott) as geologist, taking part in many of the sledging journeys, including those to the western mountains. Ferrar Glacier, Victoria Land, is named for him.
After the expedition, Ferrar joined the Egyptian Survey Department, carrying out the first extensive surveys of the western desert and subsequently became a schoolmaster in New Zealand. He volunteered for the New Zealand Mounted Rifles in the First World War. In 1919 he joined the New Zealand Geological Survey, serving with them until his death in 1932.
From the guide to the Hartley Travers Ferrar collection, 1897 - 1932, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
