It was therefore unwelcome news to him that Ernest Shackleton had announced his own plans to travel to Discoverys old McMurdo Sound base and launch a bid for the South Pole from there.

Scott claimed, in the first of a series of letters to Shackleton, that the area around McMurdo was his own " field of work " to which he had prior rights until he chose to give them up, and that Shackleton should therefore work from an entirely different area.

While acknowledging that the Norwegian's base was closer to the pole and that his experience as a dog driver was formidable, Scott had the advantage of travelling over a known route pioneered by Shackleton.

This decline in Scott's reputation was accompanied by a corresponding rise in that of his erstwhile rival Shackleton, at first in the United States but eventually in Britain as well.

Amundsen, along with Douglas Mawson, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

* RRS Discovery, a Royal Geographical Society research vessel which, under the command of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, was the main ship of the 1901 – 1904 " Discovery Expedition " to Antarctica which is still preserved as a museum in Dundee, Scotland.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE, FRGS ( 15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922 ) was an Anglo-Irish polar explorer, one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

For this achievement, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home.

After the race to the South Pole ended in 1912 with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to what he said was the one remaining great object of Antarctic journeying — the crossing of the continent from sea to sea, via the pole.

Before the expedition could begin this work Shackleton died of a heart attack while his ship, Quest, was moored in South Georgia.

Later in the 20th century Shackleton was " rediscovered ", and rapidly became a cult figure, a role model for leadership as one who, in extreme circumstances, kept his team together in a survival story described by polar historian Stephanie Barczewski as " incredible ".

Ernest Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874 in kikea near Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, about from Dublin.

Ernest's father was Henry Shackleton, and his mother was Henrietta Letitia Sophia Gavan.

In 1880, when Ernest was six, Henry Shackleton gave up his life as a landowner to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, moving his family into the city.

From early childhood Shackleton was a voracious reader, which sparked a passion for adventure.

The young Shackleton did not particularly distinguish himself as a scholar, and was said to be " bored " by his studies.

Following the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, Shackleton transferred to the troopship Tintagel Castle where, in March 1900, he met an army lieutenant, Cedric Longstaff, whose father Llewellyn W. Longstaff was the main financial backer of the National Antarctic Expedition, then being organised in London.

This march was not a serious attempt on the Pole, although the attainment of a high latitude was of great importance to Scott, and the inclusion of Shackleton indicated a high degree of personal trust.

However, he was in a seriously weakened condition ; Wilson's diary entry for 14 January reads: " Shackleton has been anything but up to the mark, and today he is decidedly worse, very short winded and coughing constantly, with more serious symptoms that need not be detailed here but which are of no small consequence one hundred and sixty miles from the ship ".

In search of more permanent employment, Shackleton applied for a regular commission in the Royal Navy, via the back-door route of the Supplementary List, but despite the sponsorship of Markham and of the president of the Royal Society he was not successful.

Shackleton by this time, however, was making no secret of his ambition to return to Antarctica at the head of his own expedition.

Following the Falklands War in 1982, Lord Shackleton published a report on the economy of the Falkland Islands which recommended many modernisations.

Vicars argued for a public royal inquiry in lieu of the commission, and publicly accused his second in command, Francis Shackleton, of the theft.

He found a concentration of 60 parts per trillion of CFC-11 over Ireland and, in a partially self-funded research expedition in 1972, went on to measure the concentration of CFC-11 from the northern hemisphere to the Antarctic aboard the research vessel RRS Shackleton.

I don't think we can let him go-though happily this is not an epitaph-without expressing our very deep sorrow to the House and to the country ... with immense thoroughness, patience and personal sensitivity Lord Jellicoe fulfilled his role as Leader of your Lordships House ... we Byers and Shackleton found him an admirable open-minded and wise colleague ; my Lords, I believe that we and the country have suffered a grievous loss ... ( Hansard, 5 June 1973, and The Times, 6 June 1973, for the cheers )

At one point Shackleton gave his one biscuit allotted for the day to the ailing Frank Wild, who wrote in his diary: " All the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit and the remembrance of that sacrifice will never leave me ".

Famous people who have lived here include Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer ; George Grove of musical dictionary fame ; John Logie Baird, the television inventor ; Jason Statham, an actor ; the comics and film historian Denis Gifford ; and Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement.

Included among those Old Alleynians who have achieved eminence in their respective fields are Sir Ernest Shackleton, Sir P G Wodehouse, Raymond Chandler and Sir Edward George.

* January 11 – Two Royal Air Force No. 42 Squadron Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft disappear without trace during a routine exercise off Fastnet Rock on the southwest coast of Ireland, and are presumed to have collided in mid-air.

The difficulties of exchanging places as each watch ended would, Shackleton wrote, " have had its humorous side if it had not involved us in so many aches and pains ".

Shackleton was later to describe the boat journey as " one of supreme strife "; historian Carol Alexander comments: " They could hardly have known — or cared — that in the carefully weighted judgement of authorities yet to come, the voyage of the James Caird would be ranked as one of the greatest boat journeys ever accomplished ".

Next, Matthews appeared in public in 1921 and claimed to have invented the world's first talking picture, an interview of Ernest Shackleton.

After World War II, Derek Shackleton became an outstanding bowling mainstay well backed up by Victor Cannings, but not until 1955 did these two have enough support to rise the fortunes of the club.

In the pilot episode, a psychiatrist ( Henry Gibson ) who is sent to examine Tanner Shackleton ( Bret Loehr ), a child of a Beverly Hills family, only to discover that Tanner doesn't have any problems — his family does.

As soon as they were away, Shackleton ordered Worsley to set a course due north, instead of directly for South Georgia, to get clear of the menacing ice-fields that were beginning to form.

About one crater diameter due south is the smaller crater Shackleton at the south pole.

His expedition's accommodation hut still stands at Cape Adare, and is under the care of The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, which acts as guardian to this hut and to those of Scott and Shackleton elsewhere on the continent.

Shackleton was adored by Sunderland fans and he was known to prefer Sunderland to his previous club, once remarking: " I'm not biased when it comes to Newcastle – I don't care who beats them!

* 1924 – Derek Shackleton, English cricketer ( d. 2007 )

* 1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the ice-trapped ship.

It documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914.

* 1874 – Sir Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer ( d. 1922 )

* 1909 – Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag from the South Pole, the furthest anyone had ever reached at that time.

* 1911 – Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton, English geographer and politician ( d. 1994 )

* 1922 – Len Shackleton, English footballer ( d. 2000 )

* Sir Ernest Shackleton ( 1874 – 1922 ), Antarctic explorer during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

* Sir Nicholas Shackleton ( 1937 – 2006 ), who demonstrated that oscillations in climate over the past few million years could be correlated with variations in the orbital and positional relationship between the Earth and the Sun.

This march, undertaken by Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson, took them to a latitude of 82 ° 17 ′ S, about from the pole.

Armitage also promoted the idea that the decision to send Shackleton home on the relief ship arose from Scott's animosity rather than Shackleton's physical breakdown.

Although there were later tensions between Scott and Shackleton, when their polar ambitions directly clashed, in public mutual civilities were preserved ; Scott joined in the official receptions that greeted Shackleton on his return in 1909 after the Nimrod Expedition, and the two were exchanging polite letters about their respective ambitions in 1909 – 10.

This Shackleton refused to concede.

Finally, to end the impasse, Shackleton agreed, in a letter to Scott dated 17 May 1907, to work to the east of the 170 ° W meridian and therefore to avoid all the familiar Discovery ground.

He based his expedition at Cape Royds in McMurdo Sound, and this breach of agreement caused a profound shift in the Scott – Shackleton relationship.

Shackleton had returned, having narrowly failed to reach the Pole, and this gave Scott the impetus to proceed.

Scott knew nothing of horses, but felt that as they had seemingly served Shackleton well, he ought to use them.