Rainer Goldsmith: Explorer who took part in the first overland crossing of Antarctica

The professor, who also had an established career in medical research, took part in the treacherous 1955-58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Goldsmith on a boat near South Georgia Island during the Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Antarctica New Zealand)

Emeritus professor Rainer Goldsmith, 96, was a doctor, physiologist and academic whose life was changed forever through expeditions to Antarctica.

In 1955 he was appointed as doctor, dentist and veterinarian in the eight-man advance party of Sir Vivian Fuchs’s 1955-58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) that completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica as attempted by Shackleton in 1914-17.

Their ship, the Theron, arrived in Antarctica in January 1956 but six weeks later, a storm broke up the sea ice onto which 350 tonnes of stores had been unloaded. Among the losses was a prefabricated hut, meaning they had to live during the day in a Ferguson tractor crate (9ft x 9ft x 8ft) and at night in tents in temperatures as low as -52C. Fuchs said that “apart from Scott’s marooned northern party, theirs was the most severe ordeal in the history of Antarctic exploration”.

Despite life-threatening conditions, the hut for the crossing party was completed, the first part of the crossing route was reconnoitred and many of the scheduled scientific measurements were completed. Additionally, alongside surveyor Kenneth Blaiklock, he was the first to survey what became the Theron Mountains, subsequently having a glacier named after him.

He was awarded the Polar Medal by Queen Elizabeth on 13 May 1958.

Goldsmith was born in Leipzig, Germany on Christmas Day 1927 to German Jewish parents and his father perspicaciously moved the family to England in 1933. Here, he was educated at Charterhouse School and Cambridge University before qualifying as a doctor at St Bartholomew’s Medical School and completing national service.

Expedition leader Vivian Fuchs with a barrel of BP oil and a Tucker Sno-Cat, March 1958 (Getty)

Uncertain as to what to do next, he travelled to Australia as a ship’s doctor and then answered an advertisement in The Times for a doctor for the TAE.

On returning from Antarctica in 1957, Goldsmith married Sally Macdonald and they remained happily married until her death in 2019. “Needing to pay the bills”, he entered the world of academia, initially with the Medical Research Council investigating the challenges of heat and cold stress to human physiology, research which underpins much of today’s understanding in this area.

However, his fascination for the Antarctic continued and he took part in two further expeditions; in 1960-61 with Operation Deep Freeze V which sought to isolate the virus of the common cold; and then with the 1980 International Biomedical Expedition.

The Theron arrives back at Butler's Wharf, London, on 23 March 1956: Goldsmith and his colleagues had established a base near Vahsel Bay from which to begin the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition the following year (Getty)

As one of the founding fathers, he helped establish Nottingham University Medical School, the first purpose-built teaching hospital in the UK. Later as professor of physiology at Chelsea College, he revelled in supervising research students, leading seminars described as “challenging” and “exhilarating”.

Goldsmith was described as a man with strong opinions with a great readiness to share them. He was always ready to challenge perceived wisdom but also inquisitive, informative, and encouraging. Warm, with a talent for friendship, he was loyal, compassionate, and wonderfully enthusiastic.

Rainer Goldsmith, explorer and doctor; born 25 December 1927, died 28 October 2024