Shackleton

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WESTBOURNE

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Sir Ernest Shackleton had become the foremost British Polar explorer of his day. He had accompanied Scott on the Discovery expedition of 1901-03 and so had all the qualifications to become a schoolboy hero. After the First World War, Shackleton planned another expedition to the Antarctic in the Quest. The aim of the expedition was to chart the little known boundaries of the Antarctic land mass and to try to discover the sunken 'lost' island of the Southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Right from in its inception, this voyage was wrapped up in symbolism and expectation. Like Thor Heyerdahl on his famous raft expeditions, Shackleton believed that by choosing his crew from different nationalities he could demonstrate unity of purpose and break down barriers. Unlike Heyerdahl he could not extend to foreign cultures, but did have representatives from most of the Dominions of the British Empire. He needed financial support and public support, and he knew where to look. The addition of a Boy Scout to his crew would attract press publicity and capture the public imagination.

On July 9th, 1921, he wrote:
For many years, I have been an admirer of the Boy Scout Movement, which I may say appeals to me particularly because it seems to give every boy a grounding in the practice of exploration.

The Selection Process
On July 9th, 1921, the Organising Secretary of the Scout Association, Major Wade, wrote a letter to the Daily Mail: - "Sir, I have this morning discussed with Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the Chief Scout, the question of selecting the Scout to accompany Sir Ernest Shackleton ... Scouts will be selected on their Scout Service, particularly those Scouts who hold the Cornwell Badge ... Applications are pouring in."

With the involvement of the Daily Mail, the ball was rolling, not only amongst would-be Scout explorers, the entire nation was enthralled by the prospect of another great British exploration. The Daily Mail ran coverage almost every day until departure. And how those applications to the Scout Association poured in! There were a total of 1,700 from Scouts aged between 17 and 19, who needed to possess skills likely to be of use to the expedition. Ways had to be found to 'weed out' applicants. In the event the Cornwell Award was not made a requirement, as only two of the names submitted to Sir Ernest were holders of the decoration. The response had been so overwhelming and the quality so high, that the number of names to be submitted to Shackleton was extended from six to ten.

The Chief Scout had been in France on August 17th, 1921, when Sir Ernest interviewed the ten boys, so he was assisted by Major Wade and Sir Percy Everett, who wrote an account of the interviews published in Headquarters Gazette the following month. Sir Percy reports that it was a very close decision; Shackleton told him that he wished he could take the lot! As it was, he could not distinguish between the top two, and so decided to take them both.

Both boys were fêted like heroes. B-P wrote to congratulate them:
My Dear Scouts, I want, in the first place, to congratulate you, as no doubt hundreds of others have done, on your selection by Sir Ernest Shackleton as members of the great 'Quest' expedition: and, secondly, I want to ask you to remember that far away you will be the centre of a world-wide interest on the part of not only your brother Scouts, but of everybody who believes in, or does not believe in, Scouts.

Source: http://scoutguidehistoricalsociety.com/marr.htm

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SHACKLETON'S LAST EXPEDITION