Reunited polar explorer recalls rabid foxes, fires and food shortages
A CELEBRATED Polar explorer fondly recalled past times when he called into New Milton to be reunited with his sister and old friends.
Dr Ken Hedges, who is 85 and now living in Canada, caught up with Mary Rice-Mundy and her brother Alan at the family’s El Rico coffee shop in Whitefield Road while visiting his sister Hilary who lives in the town.
“It was a great pleasure to have the chance to pop down to New Milton to see my sister again and to meet up with my dear chum and long-serving councillor Alan Rice and his sister Mary,” Dr Hedges told the A&T.
“I always love coming back to the New Forest - it’s such a beautiful place.”
Dr Hedges met Alan and Mary when they were pupils at Sherborne School in Dorset. He lived in Barton as a youngster and played for New Milton Rugby Club.
He was visiting the UK to attend a special gala dinner in London hosted by the Royal Geographical Society to mark the 50th anniversary of the crossing of the Arctic Ocean by the British Trans Arctic Expedition.
It was the first ever traverse of the surface of the ocean from land to land, the longest sustained dogsled journey on sea ice in the history of Polar exploration and the first undisputed expedition to reach and return from the North Pole on sea ice.
Dr Hedges is the sole survivor of the quartet that made the crossing, which included Sir Wally Herbert, glaciologist Roy ‘Fritz’ Koerner and navigator/photographer Allan Gill.
When the remarkable journey started in February 1968, each of the party was equipped with a team of 10 extremely powerful dogs purchased from Inuit hunters in Greenland. But they had no maps, weather devices or special gear to protect them from the cold.
Over a period of 476 days, the expedition travelled 6,000km by dogsled from Alaska to the Arctic Svalbard archipelago via the geographic North Pole.
They went through 11 different time zones and endured extreme conditions during the trip, which was sponsored by the Sunday Times and Prince Phillip. Dr Koerner also carried out scientific work that laid the foundation for further understanding of the thinning Arctic ice-cap.
Dr Hedges said the “prolonged social isolation” was a tremendous test of their mettle.
He said: “We had no maps, only the constantly shifting terrain of unstable ice with gaping leads of open water and churning pressure ridges advancing like a wall of lava at unheralded times of the day or night.
“There was five months of polar darkness as we overwintered at 86 degrees north, an encounter with a rabid Arctic fox, a destructive fire, half rations and radio blackout caused by ionospheric storms from sun spot activity.
“There was measured risks to be taken, incapacitating injury, the penetrating cold and the unreadable expression of predatory polar bears with the stark confrontation of kill or be killed.
“It was out there, in the pristine beauty and immense silence of the Arctic, that the mute constancy of our dogs, our beasts of burden, shared and at times best conveyed the inspiring testimony of creation.
"Out there, the gaze of animal life reflected the conscience of mankind in the stewardship of nature.”
When the team got close to the final landfall target the awful conditions forced them to remain in a nearby landing area, and initial attempts to get to there were abandoned because of the dangerous conditions.
But Dr Hedges and Mr Gill suggested they give it a go on 29th May 1969, and the pair made the historic landfall on a small rocky island in the most northerly part of the Svalbard archipelago, which they confirmed in a radio call.
The BBC made a documentary on the trip called Across the Top of the World, which is still available on YouTube.
All four were elected Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society and awarded the Polar Medal at a Buckingham Palace investiture by the Queen Mother.
Extraordinarily, Dr Hedges, a committed Christian, completed the trip despite having no Polar experience and having never driven a dog sledge before.
He was a late addition to the party after original member Roger Tufft pulled out, and was chosen as the committee overseeing the journey wanted someone from the armed forces to tap into military help and sponsorship.
He met its requirement of a tough and adaptable individual as he was an SAS medic with qualifications as a military parachutist and compressed air diver, and had already been deployed on two SAS operational tours of Borneo, as well as the Arabian desert, East Africa and Libya.
As a youngster, injuries sustained in a motorbike accident had prevented him doing his national service, so he studied to become a doctor. Upon graduating from the University of Liverpool Medical School, he joined the army, then going on to the SAS.
After the Arctic trip, Dr Hedges resumed his studies, gaining accreditation with the Royal College of Physicians in both public health and occupational medicine and volunteering for active duty.
He served as a regimental medical officer in Northern Ireland, undertaking 16 rescue missions of civilian and military victims of riot, sniper fire, ambush and improvised explosives before being mentioned in despatches in the Operational Gallantry List.
His 12-year military career with the British Army culminated in his appointment as senior specialist at army headquarters, Northern Ireland, with a deployed strength of 18,000 troops.
In 1975, Dr Hedges emigrated to Canada with his wife, Dawn, initially working in the mining and petrochemical industries before returning to clinical practice.
He was promoted to the rank of commander in the Order of St John in 1993 in recognition of his volunteer services in his capacity both as deputy chief surgeon for Canada and as a contributing author of several training manuals.
Following his retirement in 2010, he was awarded the distinction of Emeritus Status by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and appointed the first Honorary Colonel of the Royal Canadian Medical Service to serve at the Canadian Forces Health Services Training Centre.
