The remains of British researcher Dennis “Tink” Bell were found in a melting Antarctic glacier, like the one seen here. File Photo by NASA/UPI
A British researcher’s remains were discovered in a melting Antarctic glacier after he died from a fall while on a research mission 66 years ago.
Dennis “Tink” Bell fell into a crevasse while working for Falkland Islands Dependencies in 1959, the predecessor of the British Antarctic Survey, which reported the discovery on Monday.
More than 200 personal items were found, including radio equipment, a flashlight, ski poles, an inscribed Erguel wristwatch, a Swedish Mora knife, ski poles and an ebonite pipe stem.
The remains were carried to the Falkland Islands on the BAS Royal Research ship before being transported to London for DNA testing. The DNA samples matched with his siblings’ samples, David Bell and Valerie Kelly.
“When my sister Valerie and I were notified that our brother Dennis had been found after 66 years we were shocked and amazed,” said Bell’s brother. “The British Antarctic Survey and British Antarctic Monument Trust have been a tremendous support and together with the sensitivity of the Polish team in bringing him home have helped us come to terms with the tragic loss of our brilliant brother.”
Bell was working alongside four men and two dog sledges, a surveyor Jeff Stokes, meteorologists Ken Gibson and geologist Colin Barton.
Stokes and Bell believed a crevassed area was in the clear. But as the team and its dogs were struggling to make it through the snow. Bell went ahead of the group as an act of encouragement but he suddenly disappeared leaving a gaping hole down 100ft in the crevasse bridge.
Stokes called repeatedly out to Bell, lowering a rope almost a hundred feet. He told Bell to tie himself on, Stokes and the dogs began to pull him up but Bell had tied the rope through his belt instead of around his body due to the angle he was laying at in the crevasse. When he reached the top his body jammed against the lip, his belt broke, and he fell down again.
Stokes and Bell were initially ahead of Gibson and Barton. So, Stokes went down the glacier to meet with the two. They attempted to return to the crevasse but the weather had taken a turn for the worse.
“It was probably 12 hours before we found the site. There was no way he could have survived,” said GIbson.
The remains had been discovered on the Ecology Glacier on Jan. 19, 2025 by personnel from the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station on King George Island.
“The discovery of Dennis Bell brings sharply into focus the cost of scientific endeavour in Antarctica in the years before improved transportation and communication. Many of those lost were never found which makes this discovery more remarkable,” the chair of the British Antarctic Monument Trust, Rod Rhys Jones, said.
