Fram Farrington

James Edward Butler Futtit Farrington (6 April 1908 – 4 October 2002) (originally called Butler; later known universally as Fram)[1] was a key member of a secret wartime Antarctic expeditionary force and the last surviving holder of the Polar Medal in Bronze, abolished after 1941.[2]

Farrington, November 1944

Early life

Farrington was born on 6 April 1908, in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. He qualified as a marine radio operator in 1929 and joined the Merchant Navy where he served for the next 6 years.[3]

First visits to polar regions

After serving on P & O liners and cargo ships he began his Antarctic career as part of the Discovery Committee,[4] voyaging south to the coasts of Enderby Land, Kemp Land and Mac. Robertson Land. Between 1937 and 1938, he served with future Operation Tabarin leader James Marr aboard HMS William Scoresby.[5] In addition to his radio duties Farrington took charge of producing the ship's journal Pelagic News. As a ship-based member Farringdon received the Bronze Polar Medal, a distinction which always rankled with him.[6]

Wartime service

After the outbreak of war, Farrington became an Air Ministry inspector based at Metropolitan-Vickers in Manchester, until he was summoned to London for secondment to Operation Tabarin,[7] under the overall command of Lt-Cdr James Marr. Based on Deception Island, in the South Shetlands, Farrington had expected to spend the winter of 1945–46 at Hope Bay, but his sense of duty made him exchange places with a less experienced radio operator.[8] Thus, technically, he never wintered on the Antarctic mainland, with the result that he was not awarded the Silver Polar Medal[9]

Post war

On his return from the Antarctic in 1946, Farrington became a scientific officer with the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Malvern, moving two years later to the new electronics division at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell. He retired in 1975 and returned to Northern Ireland in 1989, where he died on 4 October 2002, survived by his wife and son.[10]

Bibliography
  • Thurston, Michael H. (1974). Crustacea Amphipoda from Graham Land and the Scotia arc, collected by Operation Tabarin and the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1944-59. London: British Antarctic Survey. ISBN 0856650242.

References
  1. Stemming from a schoolboy holiday to Framlington-on-Sea Daily Telegraph Obituary
  2. Hattersley-Smith, Geoffrey. "Obituary: James Edward Butler Futtit Farrington". Polar Record. 39 (3): 270–271. doi:10.1017/S0032247403233192. S2CID 233314649. Retrieved 28 April 2018 – via Cambridge Core.
  3. Haddelsey, Stephen (2014). Operation Tabarin : Britain's secret wartime expedition to Antarctica, 1944-46. Stroud, UK: The History Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-75249-356-5.
  4. "University Library - University of Southampton". soton.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  5. Haddelsey, Stephen (2014). Operation Tabarin : Britain's secret wartime expedition to Antarctica, 1944-46. Stroud, UK: The History Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-75249-356-5.
  6. It has, however, since been awarded to him after his death: Telegraph Obituary (ibid)
  7. a predecessor of the British Antarctic Survey, launched to safeguard British interests south of the Falkland Islands, where both the Argentine and Chilean governments asserted claims to sovereignty War II-60.htm Further explanation
  8. "ObituariesPR". antarctic-circle.org. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  9. Explanation of ruling
  10. Haddelsey, Stephen (2014). Operation Tabarin : Britain's secret wartime expedition to Antarctica, 1944-46. Stroud, UK: The History Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-75249-356-5.
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