Saturday November 16, 2019, Doors open at 5 pm
The Pilot, Stealth Lounge (2nd floor), 22 Cumberland St, Toronto
It’s that time of year again! Please join us for our Annual General Meeting and year-end party.
Our Annual General Meeting will run between 5:30 and 6:30 pm, where we will provide an update on the club’s achievements over the last year and look ahead to plans for 2019.
The party will begin at 6:30 pm. There will be free finger foods, raffle prizes and a guest speaker!
About this year’s guest speaker and presentation:
Dr Ken Hedges on the British Trans Arctic Expedition, 1968 – 1969
Dr Ken Hedges Is among the team of explorers known in the Guinness Book of Records for the first crossing of the Arctic Ocean; longest sustained dogsled journey on sea ice in the history of Polar exploration; the first undisputed expedition to reach and return from the North Pole on sea ice. Ken and three other men reached the North Pole on April 6/7, 1969.
Over a period of 476 days the expedition travelled 6,000 km by dogsled from Alaska to the Svalbard archipelago (Spitsbergen) via the Geographic North Pole.
The four members of the crossing party were elected Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS); and in 1970 were awarded the Polar Medal at an investiture held by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at Buckingham Palace, the citation for which reads:
“Conferred upon those who took an active part in an expedition which made notable advances in the exploration of Polar Regions and underwent the hazards and rigours of severe conditions in excess of 12 months.”
Ken also served as an Apprentice Deck Officer with the P & O Shipping Company on the Far East run during the Korean War; an Instructor with the “Outward Bound Sea School”; and in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Ken was posted to 22 Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) where he served as Regimental Medical Officer.
