British Exploring Society
The British Exploring Society is a UK-based youth development charity based at the Royal Geographical Society building, aiming to provide young people with an intense and lasting experience of self-discovery in wilderness environments. History. The society began as the "Public Schools Exploring Society" in 1932 by Surgeon Commander George Murray Levick RN, who had been a member of Captain Scott's final Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13. It was later renamed the "British Schools Exploring Society", then became BSES Expeditions, before adopting its current name in 2012. For 90 years, British Exploring Society has provided  the opportunity for young people, aged 16–25 years old, from different schools, universities and many other walks of life to take part in valuable adventure and environmental research projects in challenging areas of the world from the Arctic to the Amazon Rainforest. Led by unpaid professionals drawn from the outdoors, youth work, teaching and the Services, all the expeditions aim to help in the development of young people through the challenge of living and working in remote and testing areas of the world. Norwegian polar bear attack. In August 2011, a party of teenagers in Norway was attacked at night  by a polar bear leading to the death of a seventeen-year-old boy and injuries to several others. Both the Norwegian authorities and a private enquiry commissioned by BSES and chaired by a UK high court judge criticized the expedition's defective gun, and inadequate warning arrangements, the judge ruling that the accident was preventable. However, in July 2014, a coroner cleared the BSES of neglect as failure "was not total or complete." Membership. British Exploring is a registered charity. Young people aged 16–25 are invited to take part in an expedition. When a young person successfully completes a  British Exploring Society expedition they are offered membership for life. Historically, all members had voting rights, but the Articles of the charity were changed in 2019 and now only Governance Members - principally trustees, have voting rights. Expedition locations. British Exploring Society is most well known historically for its expeditions to the Arctic, but has also mounted expeditions to the Amazon rainforest, India, Kenya and Papua New Guinea among many others and now works in the UK, mainly the Highlands of Scotland. Funding and charity work. Since 2020 no young person now pays to participate on an expedition with BritIsh Exploring  Society. Each is asked to take on a personal fund-raising target based on a fair means test to support the work of the charity. The charity works with a wide range of other organisations, for example "Catch 22" to enable disadvantaged and excluded young people to undertake its expeditions. It claims that over 90% of them progress to training, education or employment afterwards. Science projects. Early expeditions collected valuable fieldwork data and brought back specimens for the Natural History Museum and the British Museum. Currently British Exploring collaborates with a range of scientific research institutions from universities and world -respected scientists and in-country NGOs and conservation organisations. The expeditions contribute to long-term research projects by: Many of the Society's full members, who qualify as such by successfully completing a British Exploring expedition, have gone on to play a leading role in major international adventurous and scientific projects. Notable members. The society has a strong record of developing young people, and its alumni include: