NIMROD AND THE SOUTH POLE – THE HERO RETURNSShackleton arrived back in London on 14 June 1909. He was met at Charing Cross Station by massed crowds and the receptions and audiences, luncheons and dinners, addresses and lectures began the next day, with an account of the expedition given to the Royal Societies’ Club. The honours came thick and fast: he was invited to be elected a Younger Brother of the Corporation by Trinity House just two days after his return, received the gold Special Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (The Shackleton Medal) from the Prince of Wales on 28 June and commanded to Buckingham Palace on 12 July where the King invested him as Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (lot 152). He worked on his account of the expedition, The Heart of the Antarctic in August and September, before embarking on a tour of the Scandinavian capitals (lots 142-144) and Belgium (lot 146) in October. After the publication of The Heart of the Antarctic at the end of October he embarked on 12 months of lectures which took him first around the United Kingdom and Ireland from 1 November to 30 December. In November he received the Livingstone Gold Medal from the Scottish Geographical Society, his knighthood was announced (his investiture was held at Buckingham Palace on 14 December, the King adding a clasp to his Polar Medal after the ceremony). He travelled to Paris with Lady Shackleton in mid-November, where he addressed the Société de Géographie in French and received the Legion d’Honneur (lot 145). He embarked to the Continent in the New Year for three weeks of lectures, to countries including Italy, Prussia and Russia (lots 148-150). A second tour of the United Kingdom followed from 31 January to 17 March before he sailed on the Lusitania for New York and lectures in America (lot 147) and Canada. He was received at the White House by President Taft, lectured at the National Geographic Society and was awarded the Society’s gold medal. A second Continental tour followed later that year, before he settled, fairly unsatisfactorily, and temporarily, back into the humdrum of normal life.

[Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922)]

Dannebrog of Denmark, 1909

Details

[Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922)]
Dannebrog of Denmark, 1909

Provenance

By descent from the recipient to the present owner.

Lot Essay

‘In October he made a tour of the Scandinavian capitals with his wife, and had his first taste of foreign Court life. They travelled in sleeping cars, and, as guests, they occupied the finest suites of rooms in all hotels. The lecture at the Geographical Society in Copenhagen was attended by the King and Queen of Denmark, Queen Alexandra, the Dowager Empress of Russia, and many other royalties of Denmark, Russia, and Greece, all of whom chatted amiably with Mr and Mrs Shackleton. … They enjoyed every moment, and he carried away the order of the Commander of the Dannebrog. … So onto Stockholm and then to Christiania … The enthusiasm was perhaps greatest in Christiania. There, the students, led by Amundsen, conducted Shackleton in a torchlight procession from his hotel to the lecture hall …’ (H.R. Mill, op. cit., pp.165-6)

More from Travel, Science & Natural History

View All