User:MPS1992/Roy Homard

Major Desmond Edgar Lemuel Homard, (18 January 1921 - 20 May 2015), commonly known as Roy Homard, was a British soldier and adventurer who served on both the 1952 British North Greenland Expedition, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal by Queen Elizabeth II, and the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1958.

Early life
Homard was born in Dover in 1921 and grew up in Sheerness. He was one of six siblings, and attended the Holy Trinity Day School and then the Sheerness Central School for Boys. He left school at age 15. His father had originally run a bicycle shop, but was blind and subsequently struggled to find consistent employment, leaving the family short of funds. At the end of his secondary schooling, Homard briefly attended the Army Technical School in Chepstow in Wales, hundreds of miles from home, but soon left and worked as a greengrocer's delivery boy. As a youngster he spent a lot of time fishing, showing interest in nature and was described as "always dreaming of adventures".

Military service
Homard served as a fitter working on vehicles in the British Expeditionary Force in France during the Second World War; then during the North African Campaign he held the rank of Sergeant in the Corps of Royal Electical and Mechanical Engineers; he served with the 4th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment. At some point his father succeeded in having him sent home from battle formations due to his young age, after which he returned to Wales to maintain coastal defence guns in Monmouthshire.

Greenland expedition
After being recommended by his wartime commanding officer, Homard was one of fifteen military personnel selected for the British North Greenland Expedition, which set off in 1952, and had another fifteen non-military personnel. The expedition used four Studebaker Weasel tracked vehicles, and Homard's role was to service and repair them. The combination of temperatures less than 50C and combustion engines was difficult, and Homard suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning on one occasion and burns from a petrol fire on another. One member of the expedition died after falling into a crevasse, but Homard returned safely.

Antarctic expedition
In 1955 Homard volunteered to join the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Vivian Fuchs, which aimed to cross the continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, a feat never before completed. The expedition was announced by Prime Minister Anthony Eden as being "an outstanding example of Commonwealth co-operation and joint effort", supported by Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Edmund Hillary was part of the contingent from New Zealand, who supported the expedition from a base point on the far side of Antarctica. Homard was part of the advance party of eight which set off in November 1955. This group suffered many misfortunes, including their ship being trapped in pack ice for three months before even arriving in Antarctica, and losing important stores and equipment when the ice broke up underneath their first camp. During the ensuing Antarctic winter, they existed inside a large packing crate while shovelling snow to build the basis for Shackleton camp. Shortly after the depths of winter, Homard noted that he was sleeping without difficulty due to whisky and a down jacket.

Homard's engineering task when the main expedition arrived was to prepare and adapt the vehicles, under the leadership of the senior engineer David Pratt. On this expedition four more powerful Sno Cats were used in addition to two Weasels and a single Muskeg tractor, and the modifications included roof escape hatches to deal with the inevitable crevasse danger, as well as heating. Homard described being eager to make more engineering changes even as the expedition set off, and Dr Rainer Goldsmith said that it was thanks to the indefatigable efforts of Pratt and Homard that the expedition succeeded in the 2,200-mile crossing. Homard and Pratt regularly had to lose the four layers of gloves essential to avoid frostbite in the conditions in order to carry out essential engineering tasks, and Homard became an expert in working out how to extract Sno-cats that had fallen into icy traps. Some regarded the last remnants of Britain's imperial prestige as having depended upon the two mechanics making the expedition possible.

Homard baked bread using a stove improvised from a five-gallon oil drum, and also tried seasoning tinned peas with mint-flavoured toothpaste due to mint only growing in more northerly climes; his colleagues, whose morale benefitted from his improvisation, regarded him as a perfectionist. He met and stroked a pack-ice seal, but attempts at fishing were less successful.

Subsequent career
In 1960 Homard was made a Captain on his return to England, and after serving in warmer postings in British Guiana, Germany and Hong Kong, he retired from the Army with the rank of Acting Major in 1972. Returning to Kent, he worked for Marconi Elliott Avionics for the rest of his career.

Personal life
Homard's first wife, Vicky, died of tubercular meningitis during the Second World War. He later married Enid Homard, who died in 2010. The couple had two sons, who both worked in engineering professions.

Legacy
The 3,900 foot Antarctic peak Mount Homard is named for Homard.