Frank Wild
John Robert Francis "Frank" Wild (born April 10, 1873 in Skelton-in-Cleveland , Yorkshire , † August 19, 1939 in Klerksdorp , South Africa ) was a British polar explorer. From 1901, apart from the Terra Nova Expedition , he took part in all British Antarctic expeditions of the Golden Age of Antarctic research .
Expeditions
From 1901 to 1904 Wild was a member of the Discovery Expedition , led by Robert Falcon Scott . Here he met his longtime friend Ernest Shackleton .
Wild accompanied Shackleton on the Nimrod expedition from 1907 to 1909 . Together with Shackleton, Jameson Adams and Eric Marshall , he reached 88 ° 23 ′ S , 162 ° 0 ′ E on January 9, 1909 , and thus the closest approach to one of the two geographic poles of the earth.
From 1911 to 1914 he was a member of the Aurora Expedition under the direction of Douglas Mawson . Here he was responsible for the base camp built on the Shackleton Ice Shelf .
From 1914 to 1916 he took part in Shackleton's endurance expedition . When Shackleton and five other expedition members embarked on the adventurous journey with the James Caird to South Georgia to get help, Wild became the commander of those who stayed behind on Elephant Island .
He then served with Shackleton in the First World War in Russia . He then ran a cotton farm on Lake Malawi together with Francis Bickerton (1889–1954, friends with Wild since the Mawson expedition) and James McIllroy (1879–1968, doctor on the endurance expedition) . Game there fell ill with malaria .
From 1921 to 1922 he was also a member of the Quest expedition , of which he became leader after Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack in Grytviken , South Georgia, in 1922 .
Next life
Meanwhile, Wild made his way as a warehouse clerk in a South African diamond mine and most recently as a bartender in a run-down pub. Attempts by some members of the Endurance Expedition to help him came too late. He died in poverty in 1939, probably as a result of his alcoholic illness. Other sources speak of pneumonia as the cause of death.
Wild's wife believed it was her husband's wish to be buried next to Shackleton. His ashes were therefore never buried. It was not until more than 60 years later that his remains were found in South Africa . In November 2011, his ashes were brought to South Georgia and, after a service in the presence of numerous descendants of Wild and Shackleton, were buried right next to Shackleton's grave.
Geographic objects in Antarctica are named after Wild , such as Cape Wild on the George V coast , the Wild Nunatakker in Queen Marie Land , Mount Wild and, indirectly, the Wild Icefalls in the Transantarctic Mountains , Mount Wild on the Antarctic Peninsula and Point Wild on Elephant Island . He is also the namesake for the Wild Canyon , a deep sea trench off the coast of Mac Robertson Land .
family
Wild's younger brother Ernest was a member of the supportive Ross Sea Party during the endurance expedition .
literature
- Reinhold Messner : Wild or The Last Trip on Earth . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-10-397318-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ BBC World Service, Your World, "The Antartic Explorer"
- ^ Daily Telegraph, Explorer's ashes finally laid to rest next to Sir Ernest Shackleton, November 27, 2011
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wild, Frank |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wild, John Robert Francis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British polar explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 10, 1873 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Skelton , Yorkshire , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 19, 1939 |
| Place of death | Klerksdorp , South Africa |