Ferrar, Hartley Travers (1879–1932), geologist and explorer, was born 28 January 1879 at 3 Grosvenor Place, Dalkey, Co. Dublin, son of John Edgar Ferrar, bank clerk, and Mary Holmes Ferrar (née Hartley). While he was still a small child, his family moved to Holywood, Co. Down, where his father had been transferred. The remainder of his childhood was spent in South Africa, where his father had been made manager in a bank in Durban. In 1898 he entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and began studying for a degree in natural sciences. Apart from academic work, he distinguished himself as a sportsman, competing in athletic events, rugby, and swimming. He was in the trial rowing eights in 1898/9 and later rowed for Thames Rowing Club.
Graduating with an honours degree in June 1901, he was appointed as geologist to the National Antarctic Expedition in the following month. The expedition team, under Capt. Robert F. Scott, sailed for the Antarctic on board the Discovery on 31 July 1901. After putting in at Lyttelton, New Zealand, for repairs and resupply, Discovery sailed on towards the Antarctic and finally dropped anchor in McMurdo Sound in January 1902. During the next two years the team was based at McMurdo Sound, and expeditions into the interior were organised in an effort to gain topographical and geological information.
Alongside the physical difficulties of living in the Antarctic, it would also appear that Scott and Ferrar did not initially get on, Scott later admitting that he had actually reduced Ferrar to tears on one occasion. Ernest Shackleton (qv) tried to protect him from Scott's bullying and, while his relationship with Scott later improved, he retained a good opinion of Shackleton's kindness.
In February 1902 he took part in a sledge trip towards the South Pole with Shackleton and Dr Edward Wilson, the first of a series of expeditions in that direction. He also gave scientific lectures to members of Discovery’s crew during the long Antarctic winter and took part in further expeditions inland with parties led by Lieut. Albert B. Armitage, RNR. While returning to base camp from such a trip with Seaman William L. Heald in October 1902, he became seriously ill. He became disorientated, collapsed several times, and would have died in the –45° conditions but for the fact that Heald kept him moving. When they finally reached base camp it was found that he was suffering from the onset of scurvy. In November 1902 he took part in an expedition to explore the area around the Black and Bluff Islands, and in October 1903 he took in an expedition that became known as ‘the western journey’, gathering large quantities of geological specimens.
In December 1903 he travelled to the north-west of McMurdo Sound, crossing the New Harbour glacier. This glacier, then the largest mass of ice known to man, was later renamed the Ferrar glacier in his honour. The Discovery returned to Lyttelton, New Zealand, in September 1904. In 1905 Scott published The voyage of the Discovery, having asked Ferrar to publish his geological findings as an appendix: ‘Summary of geological observations made during the cruise of the SS Discovery, 1901–4’. During his time in the Antarctic, he had made some important scientific discoveries. He had examined the volcanic cones of Mount Brewster, Mount Melbourne, and Mount Morning and had also monitored volcanic activity at Mount Erebus and Mount Terror. His researches proved that the Cape Armitage peninsula had once been completely submerged and he discovered remains of Mesozoic flora, proving that the continent had been covered in lush vegetation. He also carried out researches into the properties of land and sea ice and the effects of ice erosion.
On his return from Antarctica, Ferrar married Gladys Helen Anderson of Christchurch, New Zealand. They had two sons and two daughters. He held a post with the survey department of the Egyptian government and carried out the first extensive surveys of the Western Desert. Returning to New Zealand, he then worked with the geological survey of New Zealand. During the first world war he served with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles in Egypt and Palestine. After the war he was appointed assistant director of the geological survey of New Zealand and was later awarded an honorary doctorate in natural sciences from the University of New Zealand. He died in Wellington, New Zealand, April 1932. His Discovery diary and Polar medal are held in the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge.