A FLAGSHIP SCHOLARSHIP TO COMMEMORATE SHACKLETON CENTENARY

Posted by Shackleton Fund on 2013-03-14 10:23:58 FKST

 2014 marks the centenary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition setting out for Antarctica. To mark the anniversary, the Shackleton Scholarship Fund is offering a “flagship” scholarship worth £10,000 (currently equivalent to US$15,000) for research in the natural or social sciences of relevance to the countries of the South Atlantic, in particular the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the British Antarctic Territories.

 Commenting on the announcement, Nigel Haywood, Governor of the Falkland Islands and chairman of the Fund’s committee in Stanley said: ‘The Shackleton Scholarship fund has always been a considerable asset in encouraging serious academic study in the South Atlantic. This Centenary Scholarship is a very welcome step on the part of the trustees to offer the opportunity for a high-impact academic study which will be a fitting tribute to the spirit of Shackleton and his expedition in his centenary year’.

Professor David Walton, Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Antarctic Science, who is a member of the Fund’s committee in London said: ‘we believe this special centenary scholarship will be sufficient to fund serious research of a calibre to ensure publication after peer-review by an international science journal, marking our continuing quest to understand Antarctica and the surrounding countries, begun so many years ago.’

Applications from individuals or teams of research workers from any country should be made to the Funds website www.shackletonfund  by 15 September 2013 using the regular application forms but highlighting that it is for the flagship scolarship. A decision will be announced in November 2013.

BACKGROUND NOTES

The Shackleton Scholarship Fund was set up in 1995 to commemorate the lives of the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his son Edward, Lord Shackleton, statesman and friend of the Falkland Islands. In a normal year it spends around £12,000 on about five academic scholarships and awards to improve the quality of life of the Falkland Islands.

Sir Ernest  Shackleton’s Endurance expedition was intended to traverse the Antarctic continent. The Endurance had just set sail from England in August 1914 when war with Germany was declared: Shackleton offered to cancel the voyage, but the First Lord of the Admiralty (Winston Churchill) replied with a one-word telegram: “proceed”. In the event Endurance became embedded in the ice and Shackleton led his crew in small boats to Elephant Island, from where he set out with a small party on his epic 800 mile voyage across the Southern Ocean to reach South Georgia. Shackleton and two companions trekked across the un-mapped mountains of South Georgia to a whaling station where he found help. Three attempts to rescue his stranded crew on Elephant Island finally succeeded with the aid of a Chilean naval vessel. All 28 men of theEndurance expedition survived their two year ordeal.