Shackleton statue, National Geographic Society, Kensington Gore, London, UK
Statue of Shackleton the arctic explorer outside the Royal Geographical Society London Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO OBE 15 February 1874 5 January 1922 was an Anglo Irish explorer who was one of the principal 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 Expedition 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 became the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition 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 sequence of exploits and an ultimate escape with no lives lost that would eventually assure Shackleton s heroic status although this was not immediately evident In 1921 he went back to the Antarctic with the Shackleton Rowett Expedition intending to carry out a program of scientific and survey activities Before the expedition could begin this work Shackleton died of a heart attack while his ship Quest was moored in South Georgia At his wife s request he was buried there
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Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: arctic, explorer, geographic, gore, hero, kensington, london, national, pole, shackleton, society, south, statue, uk
