12 Facts About Alfred Cheetham

Alfred Buchanan Cheetham was a member of several Antarctic expeditions.

Alfred Cheetham served as third officer for both the Nimrod expedition and Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition.

Alfred Cheetham died at sea when his ship was torpedoed during the First World War.

Alfred Cheetham was born in Liverpool, England, to John and Annie Elizabeth Cheetham.

Alfred Cheetham's family moved to Hull sometime during his youth, and he went to sea as a teenager, working on the fishing fleets of the North Sea and mother afield.

Alfred Cheetham married Eliza Sawyer and they had 13 children together.

Alfred Cheetham traveled to the Antarctic again, this time under the command of Ernest Shackleton, on the Nimrod expedition where he was third officer and boatswain.

Alfred Cheetham returned once more with the Terra Nova expedition, Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Alfred Cheetham served as boatswain aboard the Terra Nova and although he volunteered for the search party that was to look for Scott's party he was turned down as he was a family man.

Alfred Cheetham was Third Officer on board the Endurance ship and was a popular and cheerful member of the crew.

Worsley mentions that matches had become such precious currency that Alfred Cheetham bought a single match from him for the price of a bottle of champagne, to be paid when Alfred Cheetham opened his pub in Hull after the war.

Cheetham returned to Hull after the expedition where he learnt that one of his sons, William Alfred, had been lost at sea while Cheetham had been travelling back from Antarctica.