Douglas Mawson

Rymill

John Riddoch Rymill - a long established South Australian name, John's branch of the Rymill family had settled around Penola in the south-east where his father married into the influential Riddoch family. John's upbringing was shaped by his mother following the death of his father in a car accident. His schooling was constrained by what was probably chronic dyslexia, and not understood at the various boarding schools he attended, including interstate and overseas. He did succeed in attending studies at Cambridge University, due largely to having developed his own learning methods, and being of independent means. He demonstrated his abilities on various university-supported expeditions, and with his leadership proven, went on to lead a venture to the Antarctic Peninsula - incorrectly described by Wilkins as an archipelego.
After this success he married geographer Dr Eleanor Mary Francis, and they settled at Old Penola Estate, Penola, where they had two sons.
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Wilkins

George Hubert Wilkins - the youngest member of a large family with a South Australian history that can be traced back to the establishment of the Colony. George was born and raised in Mount Bryan East, a hundred miles (160km) north of Adelaide and on the wrong side of the Goyder Line. His family farmed land there until successive droughts drove his parents to resettle in the state capital. George later identified the period of hardship during which his family's stock died as the formative years in his later career of polar exploration with the objective of understanding the importance of Arctic and Antarctic climates on the World's weather.
This quest would lead to his knighthood - and adoption of then largely using his middle name - and Hubert continued to pursue his polar priorities using whatever technology and techniques that were at hand, for the rest of his life.
He shared his life with Suzanne Evans, an aspiring Australian actress (stage name Bennett) whom he had met and married in the USA, and they settled there.
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