Ernest Shackleton was the quintessential Edwardian hero. A contemporary
- & adversary
- of Scott he sailed on the Discovery expedition of 1900 & went on to mount three expeditions of his own. Like Scott he was a social adventurer; snow & ice held no particular attraction but the pursuit of wealth fame & power did. Yet Shackleton & Anglo-Irishman who left school at 16 needed status to raise money for his own expeditions. At various times he was involved in journalism politics manufacturing & City fortune-hunting
- none of them very effectively. A frustrated poet he was never to be successful with money but he did succeed in marrying it. At his height he was feted as a national hero knighted by Edward VII & granted GBP20 000 by the government for achievements which were & remain the very stuff of legend. But the world to which he returned in 1917 after the sensational Endurance expedition did not seem to welcome surviving heroes. Poverty-stricken by the end of the war he had to pay off his debts through writing & endless lecturing. He finally obtained funds for another expedition but dies of a heart attack aged only 47 at it reached South Georgia.