Wilkins, George Hubert (1888 - 1958)

The following year Wilkins set off to the Arctic as second-in-command of the Vilhjalmur Stefansson Canadian Arctic expedition. He returned to Australia in 1917 and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Australian Flying Corps. By August he had been transferred to the general list and then to the Anzac Corps headquarters on the Western Front. In April 1918 Wilkins was appointed official army photographer and in July was promoted captain and head of the No.3 (Photographic) Sub-section of the Australian War Records unit.

From 1920 to 1922 George Wilkins was employed on expeditions to the Polar regions. He was then sent to the Soviet Union to film and survey the effects of famine on the local population. From 1923 Wilkins spent two years in tropical Australia collecting plants, birds, insects, fish, minerals, fossils and Aboriginal artifacts for the British Museum. By 1926 he was back in the Arctic, but this time carrying out aerial explorations, although in 1931 he did unsuccessfully attempt to reach the North Pole by submarine. From 1928 to 1938 he carried out several aerial expeditions to Antarctica, where he advanced techniques of flying by moonlight, made scientific observations and experimented with telepathy.

As World War II broke out Wilkins was commissioned by the US Army as a consultant and geographer to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. He also held other defence-related scientific posts and served in the U.S. Weather Bureau and the Arctic Institute of North America. The Australian and British military forces rejected his offers of help due to his age.

Chronology

1908 - 1912	Newspaper Reporter and Cameraman for the Gaumont Film Co in England and War Correspondent and Photographer throughout Europe
1913 - 1916	Second-in-command of the Vilhjalmur Stefansson Canadian Arctic expedition
1917 - 1920	War service with the Australian Imperial Force
1918	Military Cross (MC) and bar received
1919	Photographer on the C. E. W. Bean lead reconstruction of Australia's campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula
1920 - 1921	Member of J L Cope's unsuccessful voyage to Graham Land
1921 - 1922	Naturalist (ornithological observer) on Sir Ernest Shackleton's "Quest" expedition to the Antarctic
1922 - 1923	Surveyed and filmed the effects of famine in the Soviet Union
1923 - 1925	Worked at the British Museum in tropical Australia
1926 - 1928	Aerial Arctic explorations including the first trans-Arctic flight (1928)
1928	Patron's Medal received from the Royal Geographical Society of London
1928	Samuel Finley Breese Morse Medal received from the American Geographical Society
1928	Knight Bachelor (Kt cr)
1928 - 1939	Aerial explorations of the Antarctic
1931	First under-ice voyage by submarine in the Arctic Ocean with the goal to reach the North Pole
1942 - ?	Consultant and Geographer to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps and advisor to the U.S. Weather Bureau and the Arctic Institute of North America
1955	Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) received from the University of Alaska

• Byrd Polar Research Center, 'The Papers of Sir George Hubert Wilkins', 2001, http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/arvweb/polar/wilkins/wilkins.htm. [ Details ]
• Sexton, Mike, 'Australia's unknown adventurer', 1 May 2001, http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s286920.htm. [ Details ]

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/scripts/tia-dynindex.php3?EID=P002755. [ Details ]
• Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/scripts/fam-dynindex.php3?EID=P002755. [ Details ]