Shackleton. Natural born leader.

Born on February 15th, 1874, Sir Ernest Shackleton was the second son of 10 children from County Kildare, Ireland. He did not possess the elite privilege of those who would become his illustrious contemporaries. Yet this natural born leader and polar explorer rose to become one of the most iconic men in Anglo-Irish history.

Life began humbly. After the family moved back to England when he was ten, he enrolled at Dulwich College. He was not an exceptional student and left aged sixteen. Yet his early aptitude and ambition quickly emerged between 1888-1898 as he worked his way through the ranks of the mercantile navy to become a master mariner. By 1900, working on the troopship, Tintagel, during the Boer War, he met Lieutenant Longstaff, whose father was financing the forthcoming British National Antarctic Expedition. Now the die was cast. His enthusiasm and ability to talk the hind legs off a donkey were duly noted and he was co-opted onboard the Discovery as a Royal Navy sub-lieutenant on the 1901-4 Antarctic expedition under Robert Falcon Scott’s command. 

One of Shackleton’s greatest qualities was an ability to both muck in with the lower ranked seamen while speaking confidently and eloquently around superiors, of whom there would soon be none. He loved to quote the poetry of Robert Browning. His natural gregariousness is often commented on by polar historians. The Discovery’s steward reputedly said Shackleton ‘was the most popular of the officers among the crew, being a good mixer’.

The Discovery expedition set a new record latitude heading south to 82º 17’ S but proved a bittersweet experience for Shackleton and a catalyst to further his burning ambition to achieve. Scott, initially impressed with his capabilities, chose him for the final party of three to push south. But Shackleton fared badly health-wise on the return. Scott would later write Shackleton had been carried on the sledge on the way back while the other party member, Edward Wilson, claimed he was ‘anything but up to the mark’. Shackleton vehemently refuted these humiliating claims.