Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Henry Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton
Born
15 February 1874(1874-02-15)
Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland
Died
5 January 1922 (aged 47)
South Georgia Island
Nationality
Anglo-Irish
Education
Dulwich College
Occupation Explorer
Spouse(s)
Emily Dorman
Children
Raymond, Cecily, Edward
Parents
Henry and Henrietta
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO OBE,
(15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an
Anglo-Irish explorer who was one of the prin-
cipal figures of the period known as the
Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. His first
experience of the polar regions was as third
officer on Captain Scott’s Discovery Expedi-
tion, 1901–04, from which he was sent home
early on health grounds. Determined to make
amends for this perceived personal failure,
he returned to Antarctica in 1907 as leader of
the Nimrod Expedition. In January 1909 he
and three companions made a southern
march which established a record Farthest
South latitude at 88°23’S, 97 geographical
miles (114 statute miles, 190 km) from the
South Pole, by far the closest convergence in
exploration history up to that time. For this
achievement, Shackleton was knighted by
King Edward VII on his return home.
After the race to the South Pole ended in
1912 with Roald Amundsen’s conquest,
Shackleton turned his attention to what he
said was the one remaining great object of
Antarctic
journeying—the crossing of the
continent from sea to sea, via the pole. To
this end he made preparations for what be-
came the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedi-
tion, 1914–17. Disaster struck this expedition
when its ship, Endurance, was trapped in
pack ice and slowly crushed, before the shore
parties could be landed. There followed a se-
quence of exploits, and an ultimate escape
with no lives lost, that would eventually as-
sure Shackleton’s heroic status, although this
was not immediately evident.[1] In 1921 he
went back
to
the Antarctic with
the
Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, intending to
carry out a programme of scientific and sur-
vey activities. Before the expedition coul