The Database of Winterers was originally compiled by Keith Holmes, mainly from publicly available information held by the BAS Archives Service, with corrections from fellow FIDs. The database records the names, occupation, year and base of over 2500 men and women who have spent at least one winter South at British Antarctic bases from 1944 to 2020 – a total of over 4000 Fid-years. For the purposes of the database, the men who wintered at Halley Bay (HB) in 1956, ’57, and ’58 , when it was a Royal Society base rather than a FIDS one, are deemd to be Fids.

Wintering Statistics for 1944-2020 from the above table.

2635 Fids have wintered. Of these:
1062 did 1 winter
1297 did 2 winters
188 did 3 winters
66 did 4 winters
17 did 5 winters
2 did 6 winters (Ernie Duston, Jim Shirtcliffe)
1 did 7 winters (Alan McManus)
1 did 8 winters (Kenn Back)
1 did 12 winters (Dave Routledge)

Fid-winters at each base (total 4607):
75 at A
161 at B
3 at Belgrano
138 at BI
4 at C
186 at D
234 at E
515 at F
6 at Fw
79 at G
524 at H
51 at HB
11 at J
40 at KG
396 at M
17 at N
17 at O
807 at R
166 at T
27 at W
44 at Y
1106 at Z

Key

British bases are assigned a letter, former names are also listed, as follows:

A Port Lockroy
B Deception Island
BI Bird Island
C Sandefjord Bay
D Hope Bay
E Stonington, also Stonington Island/Marguerite Bay
F Faraday, also Argentine Islands
Fw Wordie House
G Admiralty Bay
H Signy, also Signy Island
J Prospect Point
KG Fossil Bluff
M King Edward Point, also Grytviken/South Georgia
N Anvers Island
O Danco Island
R Rothera, also Rothera Point
T Adelaide, Adelaide Island
W Detaille Island
Y Horseshoe Island
Z Halley, also Halley Bay

Non-FIDS base:

HB Halley Bay (1956-58)

Non-British base:

Belgrano (Argentine)

Abbreviations used in Job Descriptions:

AFI Antarctic Funding Initiative
AIS Advanced Ionospheric Sounder
BC Base Commander
BL Base Leader
Cdr Commander
DEM Diesel Electric Mechanic
DM Diesel Mechanic
GA General Assistant
Genny Generator
IT Information Technology
Met Meteorologist
MO Medical Officer
OIC Officer in Charge
Op/Mech Operator/ Mechanic
PACE Polar Anglo-American Conjugate Experiment
VLF Very Low Frequency
WOM Wireless Operator Mechanic

Acknowledgements and corrections

Please acknowledge this source if any of these data are used for publication.
Errors can be reported to the BAS Archives Service.