Crowborough

Michael Smith, the leading polar historian returns to tell us more about the Antarctic, (November 2025: Ernest Shackleton: The Man and the Myths). This time, Michael will tell us about Tom Crean, whose incredible exploits with Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton were overlooked for eighty years. Crean, who ran away from home at fifteen, served on three expeditions to the Antarctic, spent longer on the ice than either Scott or Shackleton and outlived both men. He was among the last to see Scott alive near the South Pole in 1912 and returned to the ice to bury his frozen body. He was also a major figure on Shackleton’s Endurance expedition to the Antarctic but he could never speak about his exploits and took his remarkable story to the grave.  Michael will explain why this was so.