Sir Ernest Shackleton

He married Emily Mary Dorman at Christ Church, Westminster in 1904. They had three children, Raymond, Cecily and Edward. He was a womanizer and not a good husband or father to his children.

On his fourth trip to Antarctica, he died from Coronary Thrombosis on 5 January 1922 on board the Quest. He was buried in the Grytviken cemetery, South Georgia, after a short service in the Lutheran church.

Ernest Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874 in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland, to Henry Shackleton, and Henrietta Letitia Sophia Gavan and was the second of ten children.

In 1880, when Ernest was six, Henry Shackleton decided to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, and moved his family into the city. Four years later, they shifted to Sydenham in suburban London.

A voracious reader, he was schooled by a governess until the age of eleven and then at Fir Lodge Preparatory School in Dulwich, London. At the age of thirteen, he entered Dulwich College.

Restless and bored of studies, he decided to go to sea. His father was able to secure him a berth with the North Western Shipping Company, aboard the square-rigged sailing ship, Hoghton Tower.

In 1898, he was certified Master Mariner, qualifying him to command a British ship anywhere in the world, and joined the Union-Castle Line and transferred to the Tintagel Castle because of the Boer War.

In 1900, he was introduced to Llewellyn W. Longstaff the main financial backer of the National Antarctic Expedition then being organized in London. Longstaff recommended him to Sir Clements Markham, the expedition's overlord.

He was appointed third officer to the expedition's ship Discovery in 1901 and commissioned into the Royal Navy, with the rank of sub-lieutenant in the Reserves and thus his merchant navy services ended.

The Discovery Expedition, the brainchild of Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society, was led by Robert Falcon Scott. Discovery departed London on 31st July 1901 and arrived at the Antarctic coast on 8th January 1902.

Shackleton received the Polar Medal with clasps, was honored with a knighthood in 1909, made the Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and the Officer of the Order of the British Empire

He was decorated by foreign countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Russia, Italy, Prussia and Chile and received at least 25 silver and gold medals from Cities and Geographical Societies around the world.

Shackleton Wild, Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams, undertook the "Great Southern Journey” from their base, and on 9 January 1909 reached closer to the Farthest South latitude, coming within 97 miles of the pole.

Shackleton led a team of five others from the inhospitable Elephant Island aboard a 22-foot lifeboat toward South Georgia. Sixteen days later the crew reached the island, enabling him to organize a rescue effort.