Duncan Carse

Duncan Carse (28 July 1913 – 2 May 2004) was a British explorer and actor known for surveying South Georgia and for the portrayal of Special Agent Dick Barton on BBC Radio.

Verner Duncan Carse was born on 28 July 1913, the son of the artist A. Duncan Carse. He attended school at Sherborne and in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Duncan Carse and Bertha Sylvia Hadfield were married in 1938. They had two daughters. He had a son with his second wife Elizabeth Wilen - Peter Carse. Duncan Carse was married to Venetia Kemp, his third wife, in December 1962. They lived in Fittleworth, West Sussex, and the marriage lasted until Carse's death on 2 May 2004, aged 90.

Carse joined the Merchant Navy and sailed for the Southern Ocean aboard the RRS Discovery II in 1933. While in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, Carse encountered the British Graham Land Expedition, which was on its way to Antarctica on the yacht Penola. Carse secured permission to transfer to the expedition, serving as a seaman and wireless operator and helping to lay depots on the Antarctic Peninsula. Carse returned to England in 1937, and in 1939 he was awarded the silver Polar Medal and Clasp for his part in the Graham Land expedition.

After the Second World War, Carse was determined to resume exploration of the far south. At the suggestion of the Royal Geographical Society and the Scott Polar Institute, he decided to focus his attention on the subantarctic island of South Georgia. His efforts over the next several decades won him a preeminent place in South Georgia's history. He organised and led the South Georgia Survey of 1951–57, surveying much of the interior of the island. Mount Carse and Carse Point are named after him. The comprehensive survey of the island resulted in the classic 1:200000 topographic map of South Georgia, occasionally updated but never superseded since its first publication by the British Directorate of Overseas Surveys in 1958. A full account of the four South Georgia Survey expeditions led by Duncan Carse was written by the geologist on 1951–52 and 1953–54 Surveys, Alec Trendall.

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