Mawson’s Last Survivor

Anna Bemrose

Alf Howard sailed with legends of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration and became a legend in his own lifetime. He was the last surviving member of Sir Douglas Mawson’s 1929-1931 British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) and was also the last survivor to have served aboard the coal-fired three-masted wooden ship Discovery, built for Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1901-1904 Antarctic odyssey.