Michael Barne was born in England in 1877. He was brought up at Sotterley Park in Suffolk and entered the Navy in 1893. He qualified as a Royal Navy officer in 1898 and joined the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904 (leader Robert Falcon Scott) as second lieutenant on board the expedition ship Discovery . During the expedition he took responsibility for magnetometry and soundings, and was involved in several sledge journeys.
After returning to the Navy he had hopes of forming an Antarctic expedition of his own and was involved in experiments with motor sledges, but these came to nothing. He served in the Royal Navy in the First World War and was awarded the DSO retiring from the Navy with the rank of captain in 1919. During the Second World War, he re-joined the Navy to command an anti-submarine patrol ship. He died on 31 May 1961.
From the guide to the Michael Barne collection, 1901-1907, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
