[Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922)]
Sir Ernest Shackleton's miniatures, as worn
Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1909
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military), 1909
British War Medal, 1914-18
Victory Medal, 1914-18
Polar Medal, EV11R with three clasps 'ANTARCTIC 1902-04', 'ANTARCTIC 1907-09' and 'ANTARCTIC 1914-16'
Polar Star of Sweden, 1909
Dannebrog of Denmark, 1909
St Olaf of Norway, 1909
Legion of Honour (France), 1909
St Anne of Russia, 1910
Crown of Italy, 1910
Order of Merit (Chile) 1916
Shackleton's final set of miniatures, as worn, the set replacing his previous miniatures following the award of his third clasp for Endurance, 1914-16. For his earlier miniatures see Christie's, 23 Sept. 2004, lot 180 (his first miniature of his Polar Medal for Discovery with one clasp 'ANTARCTIC 1902-04', worn from 1904), 21 Sept. 2005, lot 349 (CVO, his Polar Medal for Nimod with two clasps 'ANTARCTIC 1902-04' and 'ANTARCTIC 1907-09', and Legion d'Honneur, worn from 1909). Shackleton may have been eligible for a fourth clasp, Antarctic 1917, for the Aurora Relief Expedition (he went as supernumerary to greet the survivors of his marooned Ross Sea Party) but, for whatever reason, missed out.

For all of the original medals of the present set, except the Polar Medal, see Christie's South Kensington, 8 Oct. 2015, lots 142 (Denmark), 143 (Sweden), 144 (Norway), 145 (France), 149 (Russia), 148 (Italy), 151 (Chile), and 152 (CVO, OBE, War and Victory).

Ever since we were last there we have thought and dreamed of the wild stretches of snow and ice, the silence of those places where men never trod before, the wonder of the unknown as it rolled into our ken.
‘"Go I must" – the call of the Antarctic by Sir Ernest Shackleton', The Daily Mail, 31 December 1913.

The most decorated of the Polar explorers, Shackleton’s Antarctic career got off to a shaky start when he was invalided home early from Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition (Discovery) in 1903. He had been a member of the Furthest South Party with Scott and Wilson, reaching 82.17°S. on the Ross Ice Shelf on 30 December 1902, but incipient scurvy on the journey led to him being sent home on the relief ship Morning after just one winter south. Bitterly disappointed, Scott’s decision to invalid him out left him with ‘an aspiration, soon to harden into a determination, that he would yet prove to the Fleet and to the world that he was a fit man, perhaps even the fittest man, for polar exploration.’ (as Hugh Robert Mill wrote in the first biography).

He was awarded the Polar Medal and the Royal Geographical Society’s Silver Medal for Discovery in 1904. The aspiration was immediately evident, Sir Clements Markham recording ‘he was full of plans for another expedition’ when Shackleton visited him in early October 1903, and after desk jobs and a foray into politics, he won sponsorship for his own Nimrod expedition. He failed to make the South Pole, turning back some 97 miles short, famously remarking later to his wife that he thought she would prefer a live donkey to a dead lion. Shackleton, Wild, Adams and Marshall had however made spectacular progress, the first to make the Antarctic continent, climbing the vast Beardmore Glacier (named for his sponsor) and onto the Polar plateau where they planted the Queen’s flag at 88°23’S. Their southern journey of a little over 1,755 miles was ground breaking, and Shackleton returned the hero. He had been made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order on the outset of the expedition in 1907, and on his return in 1909 was knighted and made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He embarked on a series of lecture tours at home, on the continent, and in north America, and was showered with foreign decorations by heads of state and societies.

Just days before the outbreak of the Great War, Shackleton sailed on what would be his most extraordinary venture, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-16, intending to make a first crossing of the Antarctic Continent. His ship Endurance was beset and crushed by ice, and sank in the Weddell Sea in early 1916. The expedition then turned into an epic tale of survival. The Chilean Order of Merit, an award made in Santiago, recalls the happy ending (all of the men on Endurance survived), after Shackleton had eventually retrieved his marooned crew from Elephant Island, following the help of the Chilean authorities. After the Aurora Relief Expedition (to recover the survivors of his ITAE Ross Sea Party) in 1917, war service followed in 1918-19, mostly out of Murmansk, where Shackleton was involved in various Arctic operations (British War Medal and Victory Medal). Just two years later he sailed south in the Quest on another expedition south, but suffered a heart attack and died at South Georgia in January 1922.

Shackleton’s major place in the history of Antarctic exploration is assured by his memorial on South Georgia, his statue in London (outside the Royal Geographical Society), the new British Antarctic Survey ship Ernest Shackleton, the ‘Shackleton Memorial Library’ and his records at the Scott Polar Research Institute, many Antarctic place-names, the preserved James Caird and active James Caird Society, plaques, and a vast number of maps, art, artefacts and literature which perpetuate his memory.

By descent from the recipient to the present owner.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.