Studied engineering at the Adelaide University and South Australian School of Mines. Unit Australian Corps Conflict First World War, 1914-1918 Rank Lieutenant London Gazette 03 June 1918 on page 6474 at position 34 Commonwealth Gazette 07 November 1918 on page 2111 at position 117 Unit Australian Imperial Force Conflict First World War, 1914-1918 Rank Temporary Captain London Gazette 03 June 1919 on page 6823 at position 2 Commonwealth Gazette 15 September 1919 on page 1371 at position 35 Unit General List Official Photographer Attached Australian Corps Conflict First World War, 1914-1918 Rank Lieutenant Unit Headquarters Conflict First World War, 1914-1918 Rank Lieutenant Unit General List Conflict First World War, 1914-1918 Rank Lieutenant Unit Australian Corps Conflict First World War, 1914-1918 Rank Captain His output is represented in the Australian War Memorial collection by eight films and hundreds of photographs from the First World War.Ĭonflict First World War, 1914-1918 Rank Second Lieutenant He was so highly regarded in the United States that his ashes were scattered at the North Pole by the crew of an American nuclear submarine. Wilkins died on 30 November 1958 in Framingham, Massachusetts. He subsequently worked in defence-related positions with the US Weather Bureau and the Arctic Institute of North America. In 1931 he unsuccessfully attempted to take a First World War submarine, the Nautilus, under the Arctic ice to the North Pole. In November 1928 and January 1929 he explored the Antarctic by air, and in the 1930s, made five further expeditions to the Antarctic. Wilkins won a number of awards for his pioneering exploration work. In later life Wilkins set out to explore the Arctic by air and flew from Alaska to Norway, for which he was knighted. His appointment with the AIF ended on 7 September 1920. In January 1919 Wilkins travelled to the Gallipoli Peninsula as a photographer with the Australian Historical Mission under the official historian, Charles Bean. He is the only Australian official photographer to have been decorated. In June 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross for helping wounded under fire and, in September, earned a bar to the award for leading a group of inexperienced American soldiers through a dangerous action. More adventurer than photographer, Wilkins was sometimes a participant in, as well as an observer of, war. 3 (Photographic) Sub-Section of the Australian War Records unit. By mid 1918, now a captain, he was given command of No. In July 1917 he was appointed as an official photographer with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and reached the Western Front in time to photograph the Australians during the Passchendaele campaign. On returning to Australia he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Australian Flying Corps but was prevented from operational flying because of colour blindness. In 1913 he accepted a place on a Canadian Arctic expedition and was still there in 1916 when he first heard that the world was at war. He learned to fly and take aerial photographs and, in 1912, he left England to report on the Balkan War, becoming the first person to take motion pictures in the front line of a war zone. Soon afterwards he began work as a reporter for the London Daily Chronicle, travelling to report on events overseas. In 1908 he moved to England to work for the Gaumont Film Company as a ‘cinematographic cameraman’. At the same time he developed a keen interest in photography and cinematography. He studied electrical engineering at the South Australian School of Mines, mechanical engineering at the University of Adelaide and music at the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium. George Wilkins, explorer, war photographer and cinematographer, was born on 31 October 1888 at Mount Bryan East in South Australia.
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