Arnold Spencer-Smith

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Spencer-Smith 1907, photographed by J. Palmer Clarke

Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith (born March 17, 1883 in Streatham , London ; † March 9, 1916 , Ross Ice Shelf , Antarctica ) was a British clergy and amateur photographer who participated in Sir Ernest Shackleton's Expedition Endurance from 1914 to 1917 as Chaplain and photographer of the Ross Sea Party attended. The hardships of the expedition eventually led to the death of Spencer-Smith.

School education

Spencer-Smith attended Woodridge Grammar School, King's College London and Queen's College Cambridge . After several years of teaching at the Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Spencer-Smith was ordained Deacon of the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1910 and later appointed Curate of All Saints in Edinburgh. He was ordained a priest just before he left England to attend the Ross Sea Party .

Participation in the Ross Sea Party

It is unclear how Spencer-Smith came to be attending the Ross Sea Party . One version is that he volunteered for action at the beginning of the First World War, but was excluded from military service as a member of the clergy. He therefore offered himself to Shackleton as a replacement for one of the original crew members who had gone to war. After arriving in Antarctica, his unfamiliarity with the work involved and his limited physical stamina became apparent on the first trip to the depot facility and he was then sent back to base by expedition leader Aeneas Mackintosh . In the winter of 1915 he worked in the station at Cape Evans , mainly in the darkroom, where he sometimes held services.

The circumstances of the expedition after the problems arising from the loss of the Aurora in May 1915 meant that Spencer-Smith had to take part in the main trip to the depot facility in the 1915/16 season, regardless of his physical limitations. Yet he showed no reluctance and worked tirelessly. However, it was weakened by the preparatory work during which goods had been brought to the base depot at Minna Bluff , could not meet the required efforts on the voyage from September to December 1915, and collapsed before the Beardmore Glacier was reached. Then he had to be pulled on the sledge; he was helpless and depended on Ernest Wild for even his basic needs . The group completed the mission despite all the problems and fought their way back north as the weather worsened - all the men weakened when the scurvy broke out and progress became more difficult. Spencer-Smith, who did not complain but occasionally delirious shortly before his death, died on the ice on March 9, 1916 at the age of 32, two days before the rest of the group reached the safety of Hut Point Intermediate Camp . He was buried in the ice.

Arnold Spencer-Smith was unmarried. He dedicated a last entry in his diary from March 7th to his parents and siblings. In his honor, Cape Spencer-Smith on White Island was later named after him.

Rediscovered photographs

In 1999, a team of researchers found a wallet with three photographs of an expedition in storage in Captain Scott's cabin. After extensive investigations, the bag could be assigned to Arnold Spencer-Smith, 84 years after he had relocated it there in 1915. In December 2013, employees of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered a file box with 22 previously unknown negatives in the darkroom of the hut at Cape Evans . Presumably these recordings were also made by Spencer-Smith.

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Tyler-Lewis: The Lost Men . 2006, p. 40.
  2. ^ Huntford: Shackleton . 1985, pp. 412-413.
  3. ^ Huntford: Shackleton . 1985, p. 414.
  4. ^ Huntford: Shackleton . 1985, p. 452.
  5. ↑ Bickel: Shackleton's Forgotten Men . 2001, p. 143.
  6. ↑ Bickel: Shackleton's Forgotten Men . 2001, p. 182.
  7. ↑ Bickel: Shackleton's Forgotten Men . 2001, p. 191.
  8. ^ Heroism and Tragedy in the Antarctic. ( Memento of February 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Short biography of Arnold Spencer-Smith on the website of Queen's College Cambridge.
  9. ↑ Century old Antarctic Images discovered in Captain Scott's Hut . ( Memento of March 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 304 kB) Announcement on the website of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust of December 10, 2013 (English) accessed on February 14, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Spencer-Smith, Arnold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spencer-Smith, Arnold Patrick (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British chaplain and photographer on Shackleton's expedition
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Streatham , London
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1916
Place of death Ross Ice Shelf , Antarctica