Pat Lurcock

Pat was born and raised in the United Kingdom, though has spent most of his working life in the southern polar and sub-Antarctic regions, more recently adding the Arctic to his ‘home ground’.

An electronic engineering graduate, Pat joined the British Antarctic Survey as a geophysics technician in the 1980s and spent two southern winters at Halley base studying the earth’s magnetic field and fixing the old loggers with which it was recorded. Observing emperor penguins breeding through the hard winters fixed a fascination with the region.

Soon afterwards, he joined the Falkland Islands Government and lived in Stanley for three years, providing IT support for all departments with the fishery administration. This led to a four-month tour on South Georgia undertaking basic harbor administration, which eventually extended to twenty-five years, during which he played a part in developing the fishery administration, tourism administration, and biosecurity procedures. Living so close to wilderness and nature, he nurtured a keen interest in all aspects of South Georgia – biology, geology, history, environmental management and industry. Guiding on Expedition ships since 2017 has been a welcome opportunity to share his experience and enthusiasm with like-minded people.

Pat enjoys Nordic ski touring, with multi-week tours in the USA, New Zealand and two to three month expeditions as a leader with youth groups in Chile, the Falklands, South Georgia and Svalbard. He also took part in the first end-to-end traverse of South Georgia in 1999 and a six-month rodent monitoring project on the island in 2017/18.