{{Short description|Australian physicist and astronomer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Infobox military person |width_style = person |name = Louis Charles Bernacchi |image = Bernacchi at WIdnes.jpg |caption = Bernacchi in 1910 |birth_date = {{birth date|1876|11|08|df=y}} |birth_place = Belgium |death_date = {{death date and age|1942|04|24|1876|11|08|df=y}} |death_place = London, England |allegiance = {{flagu|United Kingdom}} |branch_label = Branch |branch = Royal Navy |rank = Lieutenant commander |service_years_label = Years of service |service_years = 1914-1919 & 1939-1942 |battles_label = Expeditions |battles = {{plainlist| * ''Southern Cross'' expedition * ''Discovery'' expedition}} |awards = {{plainlist|class=nowrap| * Polar Medal (1904) * French Cross of the Légion d'honneur (1906) * United States Navy Cross (1919) * Royal Geographical Society medal}} |spouse = Winifred Edith, née Harris (m. 1906) |children = Michael Bernacchi }}
'''Louis Charles Bernacchi''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|CMG|OBE}} (8 November 1876 – 24 April 1942) was an Australian physicist and astronomer best known for his role in several Antarctic expeditions.<ref name="RAS">{{cite web|first= R. A.|last= Swan |title = Bernacchi, Louis Charles (1876–1942)| date =1979|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bernacchi-louis-charles-5219 |publisher= Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=13 December 2021}}</ref>
==Early life==
Bernacchi was born in Belgium on 8 November 1876 to Italian parents in one of the communes of Brussels known as Schaerbeek.<ref name="AA">{{cite web|first= Andrew|last= Atkin |title = New Light on the British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott's Discovery Expedition) 1901-1904| date =1979|url=https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/14198/Andrew%20Atkin.pdf?sequence=1 |publisher= Canterbury University|access-date=15 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|page=14|url=https://archive.org/stream/FirstonAntarcti00Borc#page/246/mode/2up|title=First on the Antarctic continent: Being an account of the British Antarctic expedition, 1898–1900|year=1901|author=Carsten Borchgrevink}}</ref> His father, Diego Bernacchi, established a vineyard on Maria Island in 1884. He was educated in Hobart, Tasmania, at the Hutchins School from May 1889 and finished at the school around Easter 1891.<ref name="AA"/><ref>{{cite book|page=14|url=https://archive.org/stream/FirstonAntarcti00Borc#page/246/mode/2up|title=First on the Antarctic continent: Being an account of the British Antarctic expedition, 1898–1900|year=1901|author=Carsten Borchgrevink}}</ref> He entered the Melbourne Observatory in 1895, where he spent about three years studying magnetism and meteorology.<ref>{{cite book|page=14|url=https://archive.org/stream/FirstonAntarcti00Borc#page/246/mode/2up|title=First on the Antarctic continent: Being an account of the British Antarctic expedition, 1898–1900|year=1901|author=Carsten Borchgrevink}}</ref> During this period, he developed an interest in Antarctic exploration, expressed in letters to the press and by following the proceedings of Antarctic Exploration Committees.
==Polar exploration==
He joined Carstens Borchgrevink's Southern Cross expedition (1898–1900), which wintered at Cape Adare, Antarctica, joining the expedition in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the previous physicist candidate had been rejected on medical grounds. The expedition was the first to spend the winter on the Antarctic continent (the Belgian Antarctic Expedition having been first to overwinter in 1898) and the first to sledge towards the South Pole. He was awarded the Cuthbert-Peek Grant of the Royal Geographical Society that allowed him to work on the geomagnetic data.<ref name="AA"/> He wrote a book about the expedition "''To the South Polar Regions: Expedition of 1898–1900",'' published in 1900.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P001408p.htm|title=Physics in Australia to 1945 – BERNACCHI, Louis Charles|website=www.asap.unimelb.edu.au}}</ref> His granddaughter Janet Crawford has edited a version of his diaries from the expedition under the title "''That First Antarctic Winter: The Story of the Southern Cross Expedition of 1898–1900"''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=That first Antarctic winter : the story of the Southern Cross Expedition of 1898-1900 |last=Bernacchi |first=Louis Charles |publisher=South Latitude Research in Association with Peter J. Skellerup |year=1998 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/40511558 |editor-last=Crawford |editor-first=Janet}}</ref>
thumb|Sledge flag used by Bernacchi in Antarctica during the Discovery expedition He was again a physicist on the Discovery expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott (1901–1904).<ref name="AA"/> Bernacchi was the only man on this expedition who had previously been to the Antarctic. During the trip, he made extensive magnetic observations. Following the trip, Bernacchi was awarded the Royal Geographical Society and Polar Medals as well as the Légion d'honneur. Scott was the best man at Bernacchi's marriage in 1906.<ref name="RAS"/>
==Subsequent career== Following two short expeditions to Africa and the upper Amazon Basin in Peru, Bernacchi made two unsuccessful attempts to run for the House of Commons as a Liberal Party candidate, standing in Widnes in 1910. He also invested in rubber plantations in Malaya, Java and Borneo.<ref name="RAS"/>
During World War I, he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, the Admiralty in the anti-submarine division,<ref name="RN">{{cite web|first= Nicholas Duncan|last= Black |title = The Admiralty War Staff and its influence on the conduct of the naval war between 1914 and 1918| date =2005|url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1445317/1/U592637.pdf |publisher= University College, University of London |access-date=20 December 2021}}</ref> and later with the United States Navy. In 1919, he received both an Order of the British Empire and the United States Navy Cross. Following the war, he returned to his interests in rubber.<ref name="RAS"/>
He remained active in scientific organisations, most notably the Royal Geographical Society, serving as a council member between 1928 and 1932. Bernacchi planned his own expedition to the Antarctic in 1925, but failed to raise sufficient funds. In 1930, he organised the British Polar Exhibition and helped to organise the Second International Polar Year in 1932.<ref name="RAS"/>
Bernacchi wrote a number of books on the Antarctic including a biography of Lawrence Oates called ''A Very Gallant Gentleman'' published in 1933, and ''Saga of the Discovery'' in 1938. In World War II, he returned to the Royal Naval Reserve Volunteers before his death in 1942.<ref name="RAS"/>
==Commemoration== Three landmarks in Antarctica are named after him: Bernacchi Head, on Franklin Island, Cape Bernacchi and Bernacchi Bay, both on the coast of Victoria Land.<ref>[http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/biography/bernacchi_louis.htm Louis Bernacchi – Biographical notes<!-- bot-generated title -->] at www.coolantarctica.com</ref>
== Taxon named in his honor == A species of Antarctic fish, the ''Trematomus bernacchii'' was named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=7053|title=Trematomus bernacchii summary page|website=FishBase}}</ref><ref name = ETYFish>{{cite web | url = https://etyfish.org/perciformes7/ | title = Order Perciformes: Suborder Notothenoididei: Families Bovichtidae, Pseaudaphritidae, Elegopinidae, Nototheniidae, Harpagiferidae, Artedidraconidae, Bathydraconidae, Channichthyidae and Percophidae | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor1= Christopher Scharpf | editor2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp |date = 12 April 2021 | access-date = 3 October 2021 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}</ref>
==Stamps== In 2001, Australia Post issued a postal stamp in honour of the 100th anniversary of Australia's involvement in Antarctic exploration.<ref>"Antarctica a sticking point". In: ''The Hobart Mercury'', 17 May 2001 page 13.</ref>
==Sculptures== The Premier of Tasmania, Jim Bacon, unveiled sculptures of Bernacchi and fellow explorers at Sullivans Cove.<ref>"Sculpting a piece of Antarctic history". In: In: ''The Hobart Mercury'', 11 September 2002.</ref>
==Writings==
* The ''South Polar Times''. London: Smith, Elder & co., 1907–1914. (Volume 2 editor.) An exact reproduction of the ''South Polar Times'' originally issued during the Antarctic expeditions of Robert F. Scott. * Saga of the "Discovery". London: Glasgow, Blackie and son, Ltd. [1938] : Re-printed by Rooster Books Ltd (2001) {{ISBN|9781871510225}} * To the south polar regions: expedition of 1898–1900. By Louis Bernacchi; introduction by D.W.H. Walton. Denton, Harleston, Norfolk: Bluntisham Books : Erskine Press, 1991. {{ISBN|1-85297-035-9}} * A very gallant gentleman. London: T. Butterworth, ltd. [1933]. * That first Antarctic winter : the story of the Southern Cross Expedition of 1898–1900 as told in the diaries of Louis Charles Bernacchi / written and edited by Janet Crawford (Louis' granddaughter). Christchurch, N.Z.: South Latitude Research Ltd., in association with P.J. Skellerup, c1998. {{ISBN|0-473-04966-X}} *{{Citation | author1=Bernacchi, Louis | author2=Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain) | title=Topography of South Victoria Land (Antarctic) | publication-date=1901 | publisher=Royal Geographical Society,] | url=https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ocrdrt/SLNSW_ALMA21134887930002626}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * {{OL author}} * {{Internet Archive author|sname=Louis Bernacchi}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernacchi, Louis}} Category:1876 births Category:1942 deaths Category:Australian Antarctic scientists Category:20th-century Australian astronomers Category:Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Australian explorers Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Australian people of Italian descent Category:20th-century Australian physicists Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour Category:Australian explorers of Antarctica Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Category:Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Category:Scientists from Hobart Category:Recipients of the Navy Cross (United States) Category:Recipients of the Polar Medal Category:Royal Navy officers of World War I Category:United States Navy personnel of World War I Category:Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Category:Belgian emigrants to Australia Category:American recipients of the Legion of Honour Category:Australian recipients of the Legion of Honour