F.H. Bickerton(1889-1954)

Francis Howard - or "Bill" - Bickerton served as mechanical engineer on Sir Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14. This was the first Antarctic expedition to be filmed by Frank Hurley who, in his 1913 film, The Home of the Blizzard, (Dr. Mawson in the Antarctic (1913)) included footage of Bickerton piloting the expedition's "air-tractor sledge." As well as responsibility for this converted Vickers monoplane, Bickerton was heavily involved in the expedition's pioneering experiments with wireless telegraphy and led the three-man Western Sledging Party, which discovered the first Antarctic meteorite. For his services, Bickerton was awarded the prestigious King's Polar Medal and Cape Bickerton was named in his honour. He was later recruited for Sir Ernest Shackleton's "Endurance" (South (1919)) expedition and served as a fighter pilot with the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. He also led expeditions in Central America and Africa and joined a colony of war veterans in Newfoundland, led by Victor Campbell of Captain Scott's "Terra Nova" expedition. During the late 1930s, he worked with the English film producer John Argyle at Shepperton and the Welwyn Film Studios both as a screenwriter and film editor. He left the industry at the outbreak of World War II, when he served with distinction with the Royal Air Force.