The Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton is to be honoured with the dedication of a new memorial stone in Westminster Abbey next week.
Born in Co Kildare in 1874, the memorial by sculptor Will Davies includes a nod to Shackleton’s Irish heritage by using stones including Connemara marble and Kilkenny limestone.
Speaking ahead of Thursday’s dedication, the Dean of Westminster David Hoyle said it would sustain the adventurer’s “legacy of wonder”.
The stone will be placed in the Abbey’s south cloister, close to a memorial for pioneering sailors Captain James Cook, Sir Francis Chichester and Sir Francis Drake.
Having led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, Rev Hoyle said Shackleton had created a new excitement about science and, as a photographer and storyteller, “planted the idea and image of the Antarctic in our imaginations.”
His first trip to the polar regions was as a third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery expedition of 1901-1904, here Shackleton was ultimately sent home on health grounds.
Three years later, his Nimrod expedition fell short of reaching the South Pole – but it remained the first expedition in history to travel within 100 miles and successfully climb Mount Erebus – Antarctica’s second highest volcano.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17 had tried to achieve the first land crossing of Antartica from the Weddell Sea via the South Pole to the Ross Sea.
Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, became stuck in pack ice and sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915, lost until 2022 when it was discovered by a British-led expedition in 2022 – 100 years after Shackleton’s death.
Westminster Abbey said the survival of Shackleton’s crew despite losing Endurance showed his exceptional leadership.
Awarded the Polar Medal during his lifetime, he is popularly remembered as one of the key figures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
