Melting an ice man

‘In this stern country of biting facts one’s love gets frozen in deeper ... Know Darling that in this frozen South I can always wring happiness from my heart by thinking of your splendid self.’

Adelaide, 1909. Paquita Delprat was seventeen when she met Douglas Mawson, recently returned from an Antarctic expedition. In late 1910 Mawson wrote to Paquita’s father, GD Delprat, declaring: ‘I have drifted into an intense love for Paquita, and if a lifelong union is not realised my life shall be forever blighted.’ But there was a catch. ‘In all probability I shall go to the Antarctic … next year … then I shall return with your consent to my dear love.’ Delprat, though knowing Mawson to be a fellow of integrity, had understandable concerns. But Paquita accepted Mawson’s offer, knowing it would be a long, anxious wait before the nuptials – assuming he came back from Antarctica intact. The kicker is that things in Antarctica went horribly wrong, with Mawson coming close to dying a dreadful, desolate death in 1913. It’s said the thought of Paquita kept him alive. They were wed, finally, in March 1914, over three years after Mawson had popped the question.