A BLAENAVON scientist who died in the Antarctic has been remembered, 50 years after his death.

After obtaining a Zoology BSc in 1959 from Swansea University, Roger Filer went to Signy Island to take part in research on the sheathbill bird, as part of the British Antarctic Survey.

It was his dedication to his work that cost him his life. He fell over a cliff, thought to have been attempting to remove chicks from their nest for measuring and ringing, in 1961.

His sister, Ann, and her husband Derek Clarke, attended a special service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where a memorial plaque was dedicated to Mr Filer and 28 other scientists who lost their lives in the Antarctic.

At the service, director of the British Antarctic Survey Professor Nicholas Owens spoke about the contribution that those who had died had made to the scientific research programme and that they has not been forgotten.

The memorial acts as a record of how the Antarctic is now and is made out of Welsh slate.

Mrs Clarke said: “I felt very proud to see Roger honoured in such a way and I knowmy parents would have, too.”

Mr Filer was born in Blaenavon, to William and Alice Filer, and attended Abersychan Grammar School.