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By Sagaya Fernando| August 13, 2025
London, UK: The remains of British meteorologist Dennis “Tink” Bell, who died in a tragic accident in Antarctica in 1959, have been recovered 65 years after his disappearance, thanks to glacial melt on King George Island.
Bell, aged 25 at the time, was working for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey — now the British Antarctic Survey — when he fell into a hidden crevasse during a winter survey on July 26, 1959. Despite frantic rescue efforts, including lowering a rope into the crevasse, the belt he used as a harness snapped as he neared the surface, causing him to fall again. He was never seen alive after that moment.
In January 2025, a Polish research team from the Henryk Arctowski Station discovered skeletal remains and nearly 200 personal items — including a wristwatch, radio equipment, torch, ski poles, and an ebonite pipe stem — near the retreating Ecology Glacier. DNA analysis by King’s College London confirmed the identity.
Bell, born in 1934, served with the RAF before training as a meteorologist. He travelled to Antarctica in 1958 for a two-year posting at Admiralty Bay, a small 12-man British station 120 kilometres off the northern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. His duties included launching weather balloons and transmitting data to the UK every three hours in sub-zero conditions. Known as a skilled cook and a devoted handler of husky dogs, he also contributed to some of the first mapping of King George Island.
His brother, David Bell, now 86 and living in Australia, described the discovery as “remarkable” and said, “I had long given up on finding my brother. I can’t get over it.”
Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, called the recovery “a poignant and profound moment” and a reminder of “the human cost of scientific discovery in one of the harshest environments on Earth.”
Bell’s remains were transported aboard a British Antarctic Survey vessel, with RAF assistance, to London. The British Antarctic Monument Trust, which honours those who died in polar service, said the find was especially significant as many lost Antarctic explorers were never recovered.
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