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JOHN ROBERT FRANCIS "FRANK" WILD CBE. |
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Frank Wild was born on the 10th of April 1873 in Skelton. His
father, Benjamin was a schoolteacher from Newcastle. His mother, Mary,
was a seamstress and the Great Granddaughter of North Yorkshire's most
famous son, Captain James Cook RN. The family, which grew to 12
children, moved via Stickford, Lincs to Wheldrake, near York. During
his childhood Frank must have heard and been inspired by many stories
of Captain Cook's great feats of exploration. At the age of
16, he emulated his illustrious ancestor by joining the Merchant Navy,
where he rose to Second Officer. After
11 years travelling the globe, again like Cook, he transferred to the
Royal Navy as a rating. The 1901 census shows him as an Able Seaman,
aged 27, on H.M.S Edinburgh. Capt Scott's "Discovery", 1901-4. In 1901 Able Seaman Wild volunteered to join Capt Scott's expedition to the Antarctic on the "Discovery". Much new territory was explored for the first time and Frank took part in at least one of these forays into the unknown, the first sledging party into the mountains, reaching a height of 8900 feet. It was 1904 before the party returned home, with the men living all this time in a hut and on board the ice-bound ship, which finally escaped its prison with the aid of two relief ships and blasting the ice with explosives. Ernest Shackleton's "Nimrod", 1907-1909. Ernest Shackleton had been an Officer on the "Discovery" and recognised Frank Wild's capabilities for he chose him as part of his team on his own "Nimrod" expedition of 1907 to 1909. The two men along with Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams set out on the 19th October 1908 to reach the South Pole. By the 9th January 1909 they had discovered and named many new Antarctic landmarks. They were only 97 miles from their goal, the furthest South any man had travelled up to that time. But they had few rations left and the enforced journey back was a virtual race against death. Douglas Mawson's "Aurora" 1911-14. When in 1911 Douglas Mawson, another Yorkshireman by birth, decided to explore the Antarctic region |
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closest
to his new home of Australia, he also turned to Frank Wild's
experience. He called him "Antarctica's oldest resident"
and having accompanied Shackleton's expedition himself had noted
Frank's "high merits as an explorer and leader".
To find out as much as he could Mawson divided his expedition into
separate groups and Wild was place in charge of six men. From a base on
floating ice at the western edge of the Shackleton Ice Shelf, an area
that was to become known
as the windiest place on earth, Wild and his team sledged in every
direction mapping a region he was to name Queen Mary Land.
Shackleton's "Endurance" 1914-16. On his return to England, Wild was selected as Second in Command by Shackleton for the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and became a player in one of the greatest real-life adventure stories that has been the source of many books. The 28 man team set out in August 1914, but never made it to Antarctica through the dense ice floes of the Weddell Sea. By February 1915 the Endurance was trapped and slowly being crushed. Floating at random with the drifting ice floe the men lived on and by the ship until November when the "Endurance" sank. They were left with 3 boats and anything they could salvage, reduced to hunting seal and penguin. Efforts to drag the boats to open water failed and it was not until April 1916 that the ice broke up sufficiently to enable them to reach the barren rocks of Elephant Island, the first time for 497 days that they had stood on land. Without any means of communication, Shackleton decided to attempt the seemingly impossible 800 mile journey to S Georgia to seek rescue, with |
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Worsley the ship's captain to guide them.
22 men were left on the island with Frank Wild in charge. It was
Frank's brainwave to create a shelter by inverting the two remaining
boats on rocks and filling in the gaps with whatever they could find.
For 138 days they lived thus on penguin
meat and by the light of penguin blubber lamps. Shackleton's epic
voyage miraculously succeeded and the men could hardly believe it when,
on the 30th August 1917 they saw a Chilean steamer, the "Yelcho"
appear. Everyone of the 28 men, who had set out survived, thanks to the
heroic efforts of their two leaders. Shackleton's "Quest" 1921-22. The men who had been out of touch since 1914, were amazed to find the First World War was still being fought. Frank Wild was given a position in the Royal Navy and made trips to Spitzbergen and Russia. After the War he went to S Africa and cleared areas of virgin land to try tobacco farming, without any great success. When Shackleton called for him once more to join yet another Antarctic venture in the "Quest", Wild was back in his element. Sadly Shackleton died of a heart attack during this expedition. Wild took over command and left Antarctica for the last time. A Sad End. He married a lady that he had met on his War trips to Russia and returned to S Africa, where he tried his hand at cotton farming and then a scheme to lay rail track. |
| He did not find the same success as he had as an explorer.
Financial problems saw the failure of his business ventures and his
marriage ended in divorce in 1928. He re-married, but
his career went further downhill. He ended up bar-tending, drinking too
much and lecturing on his Antarctic exploits
to pay the bills. Frank died in Klerksdorp, S Africa on the 19th August
1939 from pneumonia. The location of his ashes has not been remembered. He was awarded the CBE and the Polar Medal with 4 clasps, an achievement no other could match. Cape Wild on Elephant Island is named after him, as is Mount Wild and Point Wild in other parts of the Antarctic, although most map readers probably think wild refers to the climate. When one considers the often insubstantial characters, the pansy entertainers, corrupt politicians and businessmen etc who are awarded knighthoods today, it is a tragedy that Frank's heroic life was not more worthily honoured by his once great nation. Or maybe it is good yardstick, by which to explain its downfall. |