Budleigh Past and Present

A hiking trip with The British Exploring Society  Photo credit: http://www.bses.org.uk/ If thousands of students arrive at university feeling that they haven't wasted that gap opportunity it's largely because of the pioneering efforts of ex-Budleigh resident and Antarctic explorer Murray Levick, whose many achievements visitors learnt about when they visited Fairlynch Museum in 2011 and 2012. An exhibtion at Fairlynch, called, appropriately enough, 'Survival!' dealt mainly with Levick's horrific Antarctic experience during Scott's 1910-13 polar expedition. The expedition  provided the seed of an educational idea which germinated 20 years later with the foundation of the longest running and most experienced youth organisation of its kind. The British Exploring Society Expeditions, as it is now known, started life as The Public Schools Exploring Society in 1932 with a first trip to Finland, led by Levick himself. Murray Levick in the 194...