The British explorer disappeared 65 years ago in Antarctica whose remains were found after the melting of a glacier

“Although it was lost in 1959, his memory lasted among the colleagues and in the legacy of polar research,” he adds.

It was David who opened the door of his family home in Harrow, London, in July 1959.

“The telegrams boy told me: 'I am sorry to tell him, but they are bad news,” he says. He went up to his parents.

“It was a horrible moment,” he adds.

From his home in Australia and sitting with his wife Yvonne, David smiles while telling me stories of his childhood in England of the forties.

They are the memories of a little brother admiring a lovely and adventurous older brother.

“Dennis was a fantastic company. It was a lot of fun. It was the soul wherever I was,” says David.

“I remember his way of dressing, he always wore canvas coats. He was a normal guy who enjoyed life,” he adds.

Dennis Bell, nicknamed “Tink”, was born in 1934. He worked in the British Air Force and formed as a meteorologist, before joining the Falkland Islands dependence survey (or dependencies of the Falkland Islands, in Spanish) to work in Antarctica.

“He was obsessed with Scott's newspapers,” says David, referring to Captain Robert Scott, who discovered the South Pole and died in an expedition in 1912.

Dennis traveled to Antarctica in 1958. He was destined for two years to Bahía Almirantazgo, a small British base with about 12 men on Rey Jorge Island, located about 120 kilometers from the north coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The British Antarctic Survey maintains meticulous records and its archivist Ieuan Hopkins unearthed detailed reports of the base camp on the work and mischief of Dennis in the hard and “ridiculously isolated” island.

Reading out loud, Hopkins says: “He is cheerful and hardworking, with a mischievous sense of humor and fond of heavy jokes.”

Dennis's work consisted of launching meteorological balloons and sending the reports to the United Kingdom every three hours, which involved turning on a generator under zero conditions.

Described as the best cook in the cabin, he took care of the food warehouse during the winter, when they were not supplied.

Antarctica felt even more isolated than today, with extremely limited contact with the home. David remembers having recorded a Christmas message at BBC studies with his parents and his sister Valerie to send it to his brother.

He was known above all for his love of Husky dogs that were used to drag sleds around the island, and raised two litters.

He also participated in the topographic work of the island of King Jorge to elaborate some of the first maps of this place in large part unexplored.

The accident occurred on an inspection trip, a few weeks after celebrating 25 years.

On July 26, 1959, in the middle of Antarctic winter, Dennis and a man named Jeff Stokes left the basis for climbing and exploring a glacier.

The British Antarctic Survey records explain what happened next and the desperate attempts to rescue him.

The snow was deep and the dogs began to show signs of tiredness. Dennis came forward just to cheer them up, but did not carry the ski. Suddenly he disappeared in a crack, leaving a hole behind him.

According to the stories, Jeff Stokes shouted at the depths and Dennis was able to answer. He grabbed a rope that went down. The dogs threw the rope and Dennis grabbed on the edge of the hole.

But the rope had been tied to the belt. Upon reaching the edge, the belt broke and fell again. His friend called again, but this time Dennis did not respond.

“It's a story that I will never overcome,” says David.

The reports of the base camp on the accident give details of those that occurred,

“We have known by Jeff (…) that yesterday Tink fell down a crack and died. We hope to return tomorrow, if the sea ice allows it,” it is indicated.

Hopkins explains that another man, named Alan Shaman, had died weeks before, and morals was very low.

“The sled has returned. We have heard the sad details. Jeff has seriously frozen hands. We do not run more risks to recover it,” reads the report of the next day to the accident.

Reading the reports again, Hopkins discovered that at the beginning of the season, it had been Dennis who had made the coffin for Alan Shaman.

“My mother never overcame him. I couldn't stand to see photos of him and couldn't talk about him,” says David.

Remember that two men from the Dennis base visited the family, bringing sheep skin as a gesture.

“But there was no closure. There was no funeral, there was nothing. Only Dennis left,” says David.

About 15 years ago, Rod Rhys Jones, president of the British Antarctic Monument Trust, contacted David.

Since 1944, 29 people have died working in the British Antarctic territory in scientific missions.

Rod was organizing a trip for the relatives of some of the 29 dead to see the spectacular and remote place where their loved ones had lived and dead.

David joined the expedition, called South 2015.

“The captain stopped in the places and gave four or five touches of siren,” he says.

The ice cream was too thick for David to reach his brother's cabin on the island of King Jorge.

“But it was very, very moving. He took pressure from me, a weight off, so to speak,” he says.

He gave him a sense of closing. “And I thought that would be,” he says.

But on January 29 of this year, a team of Polish researchers who worked at the Polish Antarctic Station Henryk Arctowski ran into something.

Dennis had been found.

Some bones were on loose ice and the rocks deposited at the foot of the glacier on Rey Jorge Island. Others were found on the surface of the glacier.

The scientists explain that the snowfalls were imminent and placed a GPS score so that their “polar colleague” did not miss again.

A team of scientists carefully rescued the remains on four trips.

It is a dangerous and unstable place, “furrow of cracks” and with slopes of up to 45 degrees, according to the Polish team.

Climate change is causing drastic changes in many Antarctic glaciers, including the ecology glacier, in which Dennis died and is experiencing intense thaw.

“The place where Dennis was found is not the same as the place where he disappeared,” explains the team.

“The glaciers, under the influence of gravity, move their mass of ice and, with it, Dennis made their trip,” they say.

Fragments of bamboo ski rods were also collected, remains of an oil lamp, glass containers for cosmetics and fragments of military stores.

“Everything possible so that Dennis could return home,” says the team.

“It is an opportunity to reassess the contribution made by these men, and an opportunity to promote science and what we have done in Antarctica for many decades,” adds Rod Rhys Jones.

David is still overwhelmed by the news and repeats how grateful Polish scientists.

“I am sad because my parents never came to see this day,” he says.

David will soon visit England, where he and his sister, Valerie, plan to finally rest for Dennis.

“It's wonderful; I'm going to meet my brother. You'll say we shouldn't be excited, but we're. They have found it, he has returned home.”

This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence tool for translation, as part of a pilot program.

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