SHACKLETON FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Niketa Sanderson Gillard receives Grant 11th October 2023 11 Oct 2023
Sir Ernest Shackleton is widely known as one of the most inspirational leaders of the twentieth century. Whilst he never achieved his personal dream of being the first to reach the South Pole, his reputation as a leader of men is based on a still greater success: the survival and safe return of all of his team members, whilst overcoming almost unimaginable odds. Shackleton's name lives on as a synonym for courage, bravery and most of all, leadership.
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was a key figure in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration alongside Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, all of whom are famed for their courageous exploits that captured the public imagination.
He was born to Anglo-Irish parents on 15 February 1874 in County Kildare, Ireland. He was the second of ten children and his father was a doctor. In 1884, the family moved from Ireland to Sydenham, London where Shackleton was educated at Dulwich College. The young Shackleton did not distinguish himself as a scholar and was said to have been ‘bored' by his studies. Rejecting his father's wish that he become a doctor, he joined the merchant navy when he was 16 and qualified as a master mariner in 1898. This enabled him to travel widely and he developed a keen interest in exploring the poles.