Mann, Neville

OT 314 West

Date of Death: 01/07/1963

This obituary is copied  from The Gazette no. 54 from an article where pictures are also included.

Please note; the exact date of death is unknown but it was in 1963.

On Tuesday 10 May a memorial service was held in St Paul’s Cathedral for former Ottershaw pupil Neville Mann (OT 314) and for all those who had died in Antarctica whilst serving with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Two days afterwards a memorial to those who had given their lives was unveiled in the garden of the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge. Neville Mann’s family lived in Godalming in Surrey. He came to Ottershaw in 1953 and was a member of West House. Michael Trump, a contemporary, remembers him as a keen young farmer and a practical person at school.

Readers of The Gazette will remember that in March 2009 the Surrey Advertiser ran an article on behalf of the British Antarctic Monument Trust, an organisation set up to create a memorial to all those who had died, seeking relatives and friends of Neville. I was in the same year as Neville, and I now live in Godalming only a few yards from Neville’s former home. I saw the article and contacted Dennis Williams. Subsequently £480 collected at Dennis Williams’ Old Boys’ Lunch was donated to the British Antarctic Monument Trust. Since the 1940s no fewer than twenty-nine people have died whilst working with BAS. The British Antarctic Monument Trust eventually succeeded in contacting the relatives of twenty-six of those twenty-nine. Contributions from Ottershaw and from relatives and friends of others who had died were put towards the cost of a plaque to be placed in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral and for a memorial in Cambridge.

David Mann, Neville’s brother, lives in Cranleigh, and he also contacted the British Antarctic Monument Trust. He says of his brother: “Neville was adventurous by nature. He joined the British Sub-Aqua Club and used to go diving off the south coast. He was an ardent rock climber and spent a lot of time in North Wales honing his skills with a group of hardened climbers. He also climbed the Dolomites with two German friends. He was a musician and played the clarinet and saxophone in a local jazz band. He sang in the choir of the local church, St John the Baptist in Busbridge, Godalming. He also had a love for vintage cars and bought and restored a 1929 Triumph Super Seven, a rare car that was the first production car to have hydraulic brakes.”

Neville Mann died in Antarctica in 1963. He took a dog team out onto the sea ice, in good weather, to exercise them. Unfortunately a blizzard and white out blew up suddenly, as happens in the Antarctic. The sea ice separated from the land and was blown out to sea, preventing the team from returning to base. Neville’s body was never recovered.

The service in St Paul’s Cathedral took place on a bright spring day with sunlight streaming in. A congregation some 500 strong of families and friends of those being r e m e m b e r e d , including David Mann and other members of Neville’s Memorial service for Neville Sanders Mann (OT 315) family, was present. I represented Ottershaw School at the service, which was conducted by Canon Mark Oakley and sung by the St Paul’s choir. Prayers were led by relatives of three of those who had died. After the service the congregation went into the crypt, where a plaque was unveiled. The plaque consists of a large disc of Welsh slate with an outline of Antarctica in Carrara marble. Inscribed on it are the words: “For those who lost their lives in Antarctica in pursuit of science to benefit us all”.

The memorial was unveiled and dedicated by Canon Mark Oakley and by the Bishop of the Falkland Islands, the Rt Rev Dr Stephen Venner. Two days later a memorial in the garden of the Scott Polar institute was unveiled in the presence of relatives and friends of those who had died, including Neville’s family and myself. It was dedicated by the Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Professor Julian Dowdeswell. The monument, in British oak, was sculpted by Oliver Barratt. Those present then toured the Polar Museum. A leather bound volume inscribed with their names will be kept there in memory of Neville Mann and the other British Antarctic scientists who lost their lives in the service of their country. 

Angus Palmer (OT330)