Eric Norman Webb collection

The collection comprises of material relating to the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 (leader Douglas Mawson) and correspondence by Webb.

Eric Norman Webb was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1889. Soon after graduating in civil engineering from Canterbury University and with four-month's training in magnetometry at Melbourne Observatory, he joined the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 (leader Douglas Mawson), as Chief Magnetician. He was based at Cape Denison and was a member of the party of three that sledged to near the South Magnetic Pole in 1912.

During the First World, he served with distinction in the Army and by the end of the war had attained the rank of Major. After the war, he commenced work as an engineer with British General Electric, working on hydroelectric schemes throughout the world. On his retirement in 1959, he was a senior engineer on the huge Hamilton Falls Hydro-Electric project in Newfoundland, Canada. He died on 23 January 1984, the last survivor of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914.

The collection is split into two sub-fonds comprising of expedition material and correspondence respectively.

By appointment.

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The term holograph is used when the item is wholly in the handwriting of the author. The term autograph is used when the author has signed the item.

Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to ANARE News (February 1984) number 34 and Encyclopaedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans ed. Bernard Stonehouse, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (2002) ISBN 0471986658 SPRI Library (7) and Robert Keith Headland Antarctic Chronology, unpublished corrected revision of Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions and related historical events, (1 December 2001) Cambridge University Press (1989) ISBN 0521309034

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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