In Memorium – Vernon Gerard

Trans-Antarctic Expedition and International Geophysical Year (TAE/IGY) party member Vernon Gerard passed away in March 2022.

Vernon was born and educated in Christchurch, gaining a BSc in 1946, and an MSc Hons in 1947. He was employed by the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research (DSIR) Magnetic Observatory in Christchurch from 1942; saw short war service in the artillery in 1944-45; and spent a year stationed in Apia Observatory in Western Samoa in 1949. Vernon was also principal scientist at the Physics and Engineering Laboratory (PEL) where he made the first atomic clock and gas laser to be operated in New Zealand.

In 1957 Vernon travelled to Ross Island, Antarctica with New Zealand’s TAE/ IGY party. His role as a physicist was to study the Earth’s magnetic field, and his extensive experience in magnetic observations was invaluable. Vernon installed and operated the Geomagnetic Observatory instruments at Scott Base during the 1957 year. He had to check his equipment, which was housed in huts away from Scott Base, every 12 hours.

Vernon reflected on this task, “I had to change the [recording] paper and I did that every 12 hours, for 12 months, without a break. I had to go out even if there was a blizzard.” He returned to Scott Base in early 1959 to re-calibrate the instruments. Vernon worked with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), London, 1960-63, and later worked in the Geophysics and Geodesy Department at the University of Cambridge in 1975, returning to work at the DSIR until retirement in 1981. He was made a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society in 1948 and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1963. He was also awarded the Polar Medal for his work in Antarctica.

Vernon was the author of many published scientific papers in journals in New Zealand and overseas, and also wrote the book With Hillary at Scott Base, A Kiwi among the penguins, published in 2012. He was the penultimate surviving member of the first over winter team at Scott Base.