BSES Expeditions - Notable Members

Notable Members

The society has a strong record of developing young people, and its alumni include:

• David Rhind, Vice-Chancellor of City University, London, began his early surveying with BSES as a Young Explorer in a 1962 expedition to Swedish Lapland. Prof Rhind was previously Director General and Chief Executive of The Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (1992–98).

• John Chapple went on an expedition in the 1950s and went on to become a the Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, between 1989 and 1992. He also served as Governor of Gibraltar from 1993 to 1995 - and then BSES president

• Roald Dahl, author, joined a BES expedition to Newfoundland at eighteen, instead of entering university.

• Admiral of the Fleet Terence Lewin, Baron Lewin went to Newfoundland with BSES in 1938 as one of the first young explorers from a state school.
• Tori James was a Young Explorer on a BSES expedition in 2000 to the Vatnajökull Glacier in Iceland. She went on to work in the BSES office for 3 years. In 2005, Tori joined the Pink Lady PoleCats team and became the youngest ever female to complete The Scott Dunn Polar Challenge, a gruelling 360-mile race to the Magnetic North Pole. On 2 October 2005 Tori became the "highest Welsh woman ever" having summited the world's sixth highest mountain, Cho Oyu (8,201m). Tori became the youngest British female and first Welsh woman to climb Everest when she summited in May 2007.