He is known for his work in mapping the island of South Georgia and for surveying the geology of Western Australia.
Alec Trendall was born in 1928 at Enfield, Middlesex, and in 1949 graduated in geology at Imperial College, London.
[2] Trendall was the geologist on the 1951–52 and 1953-54 South Georgia Survey expeditions led by Duncan Carse.
In 2011 he published a full account of the survey expeditions, entitled Putting South Georgia on the Map.
[3] The Scott Polar Research Institute's digitised archive includes 305 images of Trendall[4] including images of a bergschrund - a hole in an ice sheet - which Trendall fell down before being carried on an improvised sled,[5] to leave the First expedition.