Monmouth man has mountain named after him (From Free Press Series)

Monmouth man has mountain named after him

6:40pm Wednesday 15th April 2009

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ON ENTERING an ordinary-looking flat in Monmouth, one of the first things to greet you is a map of an area in Antarctica.

It might not seem all that significant at first glance.

But on closer examination, a mountain bearing the name Huckle is clearly marked ­and the man who lives in the flat also bears that name.

John Huckle, 84, of Hammett Court, didn’t know a mountain was named after him for more than 30 years after he surveyed the area for the Colonial Office.

Mr Huckle was one of a team of five who were the first to spend more than two years in the Antarctic because their relief ship was unable to reach them.

He served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. His main job was mapping and in January 1947, he sailed from Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, to Antarctica and didn¹t leave until March 1950.

Mr Huckle, who has lived in Monmouth for 12 years with his wife Eileen, 71, was employed by the Colonial Office to survey the British Antarctic Territory using a team of huskies.

He helped survey the west side of the King George VI Sound, a fault depression 300 miles long.

On the other side of the fault is Alexander Island, where the Douglas Range is situated.

Near its north end lies Mount Huckle, at 8,365ft high. He didn’t discover the mountain, but because of his surveying work, his name was chosen by the Naming Commission.

But Mr Huckle only realised the mountain was named after him in 1982, when he was asked to proof a pamphlet description of the area. He was also recently told by friends he could be found on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

He said: “I didn¹t even know what Wikipedia was when I was told it had a section dedicated to me. I hadn’t appreciated the mountain would be named after me when I surveyed it ­ it was just part of the job for me.”

But he wasn’t surprised. “The fact is a lot of my friends have mountains, glaciers and capes named after them,” he said.

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