Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922) , Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922)

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DR ALEXANDER HEPBURNE MACKLIN, O.B.E., M.C. (1889-1967) Surgeon on Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917 and surgeon and storekeeper on the Shackleton-Rowett Quest Expedition of 1921-1922, Alexander Macklin ('Mack') was born in India in 1889, the son of a doctor. The family returned to the Scilly Isles and Macklin went on to study medicine at London University and Victoria University in Manchester. He was working as a House Surgeon at the East Lancashire Royal Infirmary at Blackburn when, aged 24, he wrote to apply for the post of surgeon on Shackleton's expedition. Receiving no reply, he presented himself at the expedition office in New Burlington Street, met Shackleton and was summarily appointed to the post. Earmarked for the shore party to undertake the trans-continental journey, Macklin's principal duties, after the loss of Endurance revolved around the general welfare of the marooned party, including the dogs, on the ice-floe. His diary (lot 195) provides a detailed commentary on the routine of their life on the floe and later on Elephant Island, with particular emphasis on his professional concerns for diet and health, stores, medical equipment and while on the floe, the welfare of the dogs. After the rescue of the party in 1916, Macklin returned home and joined up, serving as an officer in the Medical Corps on the French and Russian fronts, working with Shackleton briefly in Murmansk at the end of the war. He worked under W.S. Kerr as ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royd Infirmary, Sheffield, before working with Shackleton again on his plans for a further polar expedition. He was responsible for the provisioning of what eventually became the Shackleton-Rowett Quest Expedition of 1921-1922, and the sale includes Macklin's voluminous papers concerning the expedition. He was the de facto author of the official account of the expedition, published under Frank Wild's name, and became, in subsequent years, archivist and historiographer of both the 1914 and 1921 Shackleton expeditions. As such, the Macklin papers have provided much of the primary source material for biographies and studies of Shackleton and his expeditions. After Quest, Macklin practiced in Dundee, served in east Africa in the R.A.M.C. during the Second World War (his decorations are included in lot 213) and moved to Aberdeen after the war to take up an appointment as the first Director of Student Health at Aberdeen University. He retired in 1960 and died in 1967 aged 77, one of the last surviving members of the Endurance expedition.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922)

Details

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922)
Document signed, a typed order for expedition supplies from H.J. Heinz Co., London, 2 July 1914, on paper with printed heading of 'The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition', with Heinz's typed copy of the order, two pages, folio.

PROVENANCE:
Alexander Hepburne Macklin (1889-1967), and thence by descent to the present owners.

The order lists supplies required for the Endurance expedition under the headings of the four separate parties of the expedition: 'Weddell Sea Shore Party', 'Ross Sea Shore Party', 'Endurance Ship I', 'Aurora Ship II', and requests 19 Heinz products in quantities of up to 264 tins, including three varieties of soup, spaghetti, two varieties of beans, and an assortment of sauces, relishes, chutneys and dressings; the net cost to be £52-5-1. An annotation to the Heinz confirmation of the order observes that 'Heinz wish to supply some goods at 17½ per cent discount. Last time 5½ per cent discount'.

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