78 Facts About Ernest Shackleton

Major Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic.

Ernest Shackleton was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Away from his expeditions, Ernest Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled.

Later in the 20th century, Ernest Shackleton was "rediscovered", and became a role model for leadership in extreme circumstances.

In 2002, Ernest Shackleton was voted eleventh in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

Ernest Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874, in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland.

The Ernest Shackleton family are of English origin, specifically from Yorkshire.

Ernest Shackleton was the second of their ten children and the first of two sons; the second, Frank, achieved notoriety as a suspect, later exonerated, in the 1907 theft of the so-called Irish Crown Jewels, which have never been recovered.

In 1880, when Ernest was six, Henry Shackleton gave up his life as a landowner to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, moving his family to the city.

However, Ernest Shackleton took lifelong pride in his Irish roots, and frequently declared, "I am an Irishman".

From early childhood, Ernest Shackleton was a voracious reader, a pursuit which sparked a passion for adventure.

Ernest Shackleton was schooled by a governess until the age of eleven, when he began at Fir Lodge Preparatory School in West Hill, Dulwich, in southeast London.

The young Ernest Shackleton did not particularly distinguish himself as a scholar, and was said to be "bored" by his studies.

Ernest Shackleton's father was able to secure him a berth with the North Western Shipping Company, aboard the square-rigged sailing ship Hoghton Tower.

In 1898, Ernest Shackleton joined Union-Castle Line, the regular mail and passenger carrier between Southampton and Cape Town.

Ernest Shackleton was, as a shipmate recorded, "a departure from our usual type of young officer", content with his own company though not aloof, "spouting lines from Keats [and] Browning", a mixture of sensitivity and aggression but, withal, sympathetic.

Ernest Shackleton used his acquaintance with the son to obtain an interview with Longstaff senior, with a view to obtaining a place on the expedition.

Longstaff, impressed by Ernest Shackleton's keenness, recommended him to Sir Clements Markham, the expedition's overlord, making it clear that he wanted Ernest Shackleton accepted.

Ernest Shackleton accepted this, even though his own background and instincts favoured a different, more informal style of leadership.

Ernest Shackleton participated, with the scientists Edward Adrian Wilson and Hartley T Ferrar, in the first sledging trip from the expedition's winter quarters in McMurdo Sound, a journey which established a safe route on to the Great Ice Barrier.

Ernest Shackleton later denied Scott's claim in The Voyage of the Discovery, that he had been carried on the sledge.

Ernest Shackleton assisted in the equipping of the Argentine Uruguay, which was being fitted out for the relief of the stranded Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskjold.

In search of more permanent employment, Ernest Shackleton applied for a regular commission in the Royal Navy, via the back-door route of the Supplementary List, but despite the sponsorship of Markham and William Huggins, the president of the Royal Society, he was not successful.

Ernest Shackleton was then offered, and accepted, the secretaryship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, a post which he took up on 11 January 1904.

In 1905, Ernest Shackleton became a shareholder in a speculative company that aimed to make a fortune transporting Russian troops home from the Far East.

Ernest Shackleton ventured into politics, unsuccessfully standing in the 1906 General Election as the Liberal Unionist Party's candidate for Dundee constituency in opposition to Irish Home Rule.

Beardmore was sufficiently impressed with Ernest Shackleton to offer financial support, but other donations proved hard to come by.

Nevertheless, in February 1907, Ernest Shackleton presented to the Royal Geographical Society his plans for an Antarctic expedition, the details of which, under the name British Antarctic Expedition, were published in the Royal Geographical Society's newsletter, Geographical Journal.

On 4 August 1907, Ernest Shackleton was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order, 4th Class.

At one point, Ernest Shackleton gave his one biscuit allotted for the day to the ailing Frank Wild, who wrote in his diary: "All the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit and the remembrance of that sacrifice will never leave me".

Ernest Shackleton returned to the United Kingdom as a hero, and soon afterwards published his expedition account, Heart of the Antarctic.

In 1910, Ernest Shackleton made a series of three recordings describing the expedition using an Edison phonograph.

Ernest Shackleton was honoured by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him a gold medal; a proposal that the medal be smaller than that earlier awarded to Captain Scott was not acted on.

Ernest Shackleton was appointed a Younger Brother of Trinity House, a significant honour for British mariners.

Ernest Shackleton's fellow-explorers expressed their admiration; Roald Amundsen wrote, in a letter to RGS Secretary John Scott Keltie, that "the English nation has by this deed of Ernest Shackleton's won a victory that can never be surpassed".

Fridtjof Nansen sent an effusive private letter to Emily Ernest Shackleton, praising the "unique expedition which has been such a complete success in every respect".

Ernest Shackleton then sought to cash in on his celebrity by making a fortune in the business world.

Ernest Shackleton still harboured thoughts of returning south, even though in September 1910, having recently moved with his family to Sheringham in Norfolk, he wrote to Emily: "I am never again going South and I have thought it all out and my place is at home now".

Ernest Shackleton had been in discussions with Douglas Mawson about a scientific expedition to the Antarctic coast between Cape Adare and Gaussberg, and had written to the RGS about this in February 1910.

Ernest Shackleton's mind turned to a project that had been announced, and then abandoned, by the British explorer William Speirs Bruce, for a continental crossing, from a landing in the Weddell Sea, via the South Pole to McMurdo Sound.

Bruce, who had failed to acquire financial backing, was happy that Ernest Shackleton should adopt his plans, which were similar to those being followed by the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner.

The transcontinental journey, in Ernest Shackleton's words, was the "one great object of Antarctic journeyings" remaining, now open to him.

Ernest Shackleton published details of his new expedition, grandly titled the "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition", early in 1914.

Two ships would be employed; Endurance would carry the main party into the Weddell Sea, aiming for Vahsel Bay from where a team of six, led by Ernest Shackleton, would begin the crossing of the continent.

Public interest in the expedition was considerable; Ernest Shackleton received more than 5,000 applications to join it.

Ernest Shackleton's interviewing and selection methods sometimes seemed eccentric; believing that character and temperament were as important as technical ability, he asked unconventional questions.

Ernest Shackleton loosened some traditional hierarchies to promote camaraderie, such as distributing the ship's chores equally among officers, scientists, and seamen.

Ernest Shackleton socialised with his crew members every evening after dinner, leading sing-alongs, jokes, and games.

Ernest Shackleton ultimately selected a crew of 56, twenty-eight on each ship.

Ernest Shackleton drifted slowly northward with the ice through the following months.

Until this point, Ernest Shackleton had hoped that the ship, when released from the ice, could work her way back towards Vahsel Bay.

Consequently, Ernest Shackleton decided to risk an open-boat journey to the 720-nautical-mile-distant South Georgia whaling stations, where he knew help was available.

Ernest Shackleton chose five companions for the journey: Frank Worsley, Endurances captain, who would be responsible for navigation; Tom Crean, who had "begged to go"; two strong sailors in John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy, and finally the carpenter McNish.

Not only did Ernest Shackleton recognise their value for the job but because he knew the potential risk they were to morale.

Ernest Shackleton refused to pack supplies for more than four weeks, knowing that if they did not reach South Georgia within that time, the boat and its crew would be lost.

Ernest Shackleton immediately sent a boat to pick up the three men from the other side of South Georgia while he set to work to organise the rescue of the Elephant Island men.

Ernest Shackleton appealed to the Chilean government, which offered the use of the Yelcho, a small seagoing tug from its navy.

Ernest Shackleton travelled there to join Aurora, and sailed with her to the rescue of the Ross Sea party.

When Ernest Shackleton returned to England in May 1917, Europe was in the midst of the First World War.

Ernest Shackleton was then briefly involved in a mission to Spitzbergen to establish a British presence there under guise of a mining operation.

Ernest Shackleton was specially appointed a temporary major on 22 July 1918.

Ernest Shackleton returned to England in early March 1919, full of plans for the economic development of Northern Russia.

Ernest Shackleton was finally discharged from the army in October 1919, retaining his rank of major.

Ernest Shackleton returned to the lecture circuit and published his own account of the Endurance expedition, South, in December 1919.

In 1920, tired of the lecture circuit, Ernest Shackleton began to consider the possibility of a last expedition.

Ernest Shackleton thought seriously of going to the Beaufort Sea area of the Arctic, a largely unexplored region, and raised some interest in this idea from the Canadian government.

On 16 September 1921, Ernest Shackleton recorded a farewell address on a sound-on-film system created by Harry Grindell Matthews, who claimed it was the first "talking picture" ever made.

Ernest Shackleton refused a proper medical examination, so Quest continued south, and on 4 January 1922, arrived at South Georgia.

Leonard Hussey, a veteran of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, offered to accompany the body back to Britain; while he was in Montevideo en route to England, a message was received from Emily Ernest Shackleton asking that her husband be buried in South Georgia.

Hussey returned to South Georgia with the body on the steamer Woodville, and on 5 March 1922, Ernest Shackleton was buried in the Grytviken cemetery, South Georgia, after a short service in the Lutheran church, with Edward Binnie officiating.

Ernest Shackleton's will was proven in London on 12 May 1922.

Lady Ernest Shackleton survived her husband by 14 years, dying in 1936.

In 2002, in a BBC poll conducted to determine the "100 Greatest Britons", Ernest Shackleton was ranked 11th while Scott was down in 54th place.

In 1983 the BBC produced and broadcast the miniseries Ernest Shackleton, which was released on DVD in 2017.

Ernest Shackleton has been cited as a model leader by the US Navy, and in a textbook on Congressional leadership, Peter L Steinke calls Ernest Shackleton the archetype of the "nonanxious leader" whose "calm, reflective demeanor becomes the antibiotic warning of the toxicity of reactive behaviour".

Ernest Shackleton's death marked the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, a period of discovery characterised by journeys of geographical and scientific exploration in a largely unknown continent without any of the benefits of modern travel methods or radio communication.

In January 2016, Ernest Shackleton featured on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail on the centenary of the Endurance expedition.

In 2017, the musical play Ernest Shackleton Loves Me by Val Vigoda and Joe DiPietro made its debut in New York City at the Tony Kiser Theater, an off-Broadway venue.