In 1956, the Royal Society and the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey collaborated to send a small expedition to make glaciological observations on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia during the International Geophysical Year. Jeremy Smith thought his partner, Richard Brown, to be lazy and unqualified for the work. Brown considered Smith to be fanatical, misogynistic, and incapable of social propriety. The two scientists fought incessantly. At the center of much of their discord was Brown’s wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Brown’s inclusion on this expedition places her in an anomalous position, as Britain forbade women full access to Antarctica until 1996. Smith found her presence intolerable and after months of complaining, managed to have Brown dismissed and the couple returned to London. Smith’s results were never published.
This expedition can tell us a lot about the state of British glaciology in the 1950s, including its low priority for the British government, the lack of qualified geologists willing to go to Antarctica, and the dwindling relevance of small scale glaciological surveys to the greater field. Most importantly it shows how the social boundaries of science were drawn by those practicing it. Smith constantly dwells on what rights should be extended to him, as well as policing the behavior of those like Richard and Elizabeth Brown, who as non-formally trained scientists, should not be on a Royal Society Expedition. Through illegitimating their presence, essentially erasing the couple from official histories of the expedition, Smith validated his own self-estimation as a true scientist.
