Oliver Stuart

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Oliver, Stuart was a renowned explorer, discovering the lost interior of the Sahara by numerous balloon expeditions in the 1920s. He was born in Taunton, Somerset, in 1881. His childhood was spent in Exmoor, the son of a Master Mariner. He was schooled in Monmouth, Wales before joining the Royal Regiment of Artillery where he discovered his passion for Balloons, then used for Artillery spotting. He was the first Westerner to see the Ma'tan Bisrah. His mapping of the Sahara was used by the British Army in the North African campaign of World War Two. He died in 1973 and was buried in a balloon shaped coffin, but his body was later exhumed in 2005 after speculation surrounding the suspicious nature of his death.