Person

Richards, Richard Walter (1893 - 1985)

Born
14 November 1893
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Died
8 May 1985
Point Lonsdale, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Antarctic explorer, Physicist and Science educator

Summary

Richard Walter Richards was a physicist on Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 - 1917. He was just 20 years old, and had only recenlty completed his studies at the University of Melbourne, when he joined SY Aurora. Richards was a member of the Ross Sea party, which established a base at McMurdo Sound and crossed the Ross Ice Shelf towards the Beardmore Glacier, laying depots of stores for Shackleton's return. The party's return journey was harrowing, Richards playing a significant role in the survival of the men. On returning from the Expedition, he resumed his teaching career at the Ballarat School of Mines. Between 1946 and 1958 he was Principal of the School. He was joint Secretary and Treasurer of the Ballarat Science and Field Naturalists Club for two years until the Club folded. Richardson Inlet, near the Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica, was named in his honour.

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Details

Chronology

1914
Career position - Lecturer in mathematics, Ballarat School of Mines
1914
Education - BSc (physics), University of Melbourne
1914 - 1916
Award - Polar Medal (silver) with clasps
1914 - 1917
Career position - Physicist, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
1917 - 1918
Career position - Secretary and treasurer (jointly with W. H. Collyer), Ballarat Science and Field Naturalists Club
1918 - 1946
Career position - Lecturer in mathematics and physics, Ballarat School of Mines
1923
Award - Albert Medal
1946 - 1958
Career position - Principal, Ballarat School of Mines

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Related Cultural Objects

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

  • Richard Walter Richards - Records, 1914 - 1960, TRC 495; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

  • McOrist, Wilson, The boy from Long Gully: Australia's unsung hero from the early 1900s heroic age of Antarctic exploration (Newport, N.S.W.: Big Sky Publishing, 2021), 287 pp. Details
  • Richards, R. W., The Ross Sea shore party 1914-17 (Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute, 1962), 44 pp. Details
  • Tyler-Lewis, Kelly, The lost men: the harrowing saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea party (New York: Viking, 2006), 366 pp. Details

Resources

See also

  • Bickel, Lennard, Shackleton's forgotten men: the untold tragedy of the endurance epic (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press: Balliett & Fitzgerald, 2000), 241 pp. Details
  • Kruss, Susan, 'A voice for nature: a history of the Field Naturalists' Club of Ballarat', PhD thesis, Federation University Australia, 2024, 594 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy and Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 19 May 2026

EOAS ID: biogs/P001481b.htm

This Edition: 2026 May - New Office
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