Gaston de Gerlache was the son of explorer and naval officer Adrien de Gerlache.
He was an officer in the Belgian army when the Second World War broke out. In May 1940 he was taken prisoner of war and was released in 1942. He escaped to England, where he joined the Belgian armed forces and trained as a pilot with the Royal Air Force.
After the war, Gerlache remained active as a reserve pilot. He became a doctor of law and was a professional legal advisor.
He gained fame when he followed in his father's footsteps by leading the second Belgian expedition to Antarctica in 1957-1958, 60 years after his father led the first with the Belgica. During this second expedition, in which the Polarhav and the Polarsirkel took them to Antarctica, the King Baudouin base was established there. The purpose of the expedition was twofold. Firstly, they wanted to conduct scientific research and furthermore, they wanted to discover and map Antarctica itself.
In 1960, Gaston de Gerlache published his travelogue in Retour dans l'antarctique. The following year he made a documentary about his expedition under the name Plein sud.
During the next expedition, led by Guido Derom, a 2,400 meter high mountain in Antarctica was named after Gaston de Gerlache.
He lived for a while in the Gerlache castle in Huise and was mayor of Mullem for eighteen years.
(Wikipedia)