Editing Ernest Shackleton (section)

== Early years ==

=== Childhood and education ===
[[File:Ernest Shackleton Plaque.jpg|thumb|[[Blue plaque]] marking Shackleton's home at 12 Westwood Hill, [[Sydenham, London|Sydenham]], London Borough of Lewisham<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->|alt=See caption]]
Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874, in [[Kilkea]], County Kildare<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->, Ireland<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->.{{sfn|Fisher|Fisher|1957|p=1}}<ref name="KAS 273">{{cite web|url=https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/monumental-inscriptions/sydenham |title=Some Monumental Inscriptions of St Bartholomew's Church, Sydenham [no.273] |work=Kent Archaeological Society |access-date=10 February 2024 |url-status=live |archive-date=25 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625015422/https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/monumental-inscriptions/sydenham}}</ref> His father, Henry Shackleton, tried to enter the [[British Army]], but his poor health prevented him from doing so; instead he became a farmer and settled in Kilkea.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=5}} The Shackleton family are of English origin, specifically from [[West Yorkshire]].<ref name="ErnestShackleton.net" /> Shackleton's father was descended from [[Abraham Shackleton]], an English [[Quaker]] who moved to Ireland in 1726 and started a school in [[Ballitore]], County Kildare.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.photoalbumoftheirish.com/shackleton-county-kildare/ |title=Album: Shackleton // County Kildare |website=Photo Album of the Irish (supported by the [[Arts Council (Ireland)|Arts Council]]) |date=5 June 2014 |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-date=24 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124063745/http://www.photoalbumoftheirish.com/shackleton-county-kildare/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=4}} Shackleton's mother, Henrietta Letitia Sophia Gavan,{{sfn|Fisher|Fisher|1957|p=518}} was descended from the [[Fitzmaurice]] family.<ref name="ErnestShackleton.net">{{cite web|url=https://www.ernestshackleton.net/#hisearlylife |title=Sir Ernest Shackleton: His Early Life |website=ErnestShackleton.net |access-date=5 January 2019 |url-status=live |archive-date=5 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105194208/https://www.ernestshackleton.net/#hisearlylife}}</ref> Ernest was the second of ten children<ref name="ErnestShackleton.net" /> and the first of two sons;<ref name="KAS 273" /> the second, Frank, achieved notoriety as a suspect, later exonerated, in the 1907 theft of the so-called [[Irish Crown Jewels]], which have never been recovered.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=227–228}}

In 1880, when Ernest was six, his father gave up his life as a landowner to study medicine at [[Trinity College Dublin]], moving his family to the city.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=6–9}} Four years later, they left Ireland and moved to [[Sydenham, London|Sydenham]] in suburban London.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=9}} This was partly in search of better professional prospects for the newly qualified doctor, but another factor may have been unease about the family's [[Anglo-Irish]] ancestry, following the 1882 assassination by [[Irish nationalists]] of [[Lord Frederick Cavendish]], the British [[Chief Secretary for Ireland]].{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=6–9}} However, Shackleton took lifelong pride in his Irish roots and frequently declared that he was "an Irishman".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jamescairdsociety.com/shackleton/irish-connection/ |title=Ancestry & Irish connection |website=James Caird Society |access-date=12 June 2019 |url-status=live |archive-date=31 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331150105/https://jamescairdsociety.com/irish-connection/}}</ref>

From early childhood, Shackleton was a voracious reader, a pursuit which sparked in him a passion for adventure.{{sfn|Kimmel|1999|pp=4–5}} He was schooled by a governess until the age of eleven, when he began at Fir Lodge Preparatory School in West Hill, [[Dulwich]], in southeast London. At the age of thirteen, he entered [[Dulwich College]].{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=6–9}} As a youngster, Shackleton did not particularly distinguish himself as a scholar, and was said to be "bored" by his studies.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=6–9}}

He was quoted later as saying: "I never learned much geography at school&nbsp;[...] Literature, too, consisted in the dissection, the parsing, the analysing of certain passages from our great poets and prose-writers&nbsp;... teachers should be very careful not to spoil [their pupils'] taste for poetry for all time by making it a task and an imposition."{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=6–9}} In his final term at the school, he was still able to achieve fifth place in his class of thirty-one.{{sfn|Mill|1923|pp=24, 72–80, 104–115, 150}}
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=== Merchant Navy officer ===
[[File:HRM EHS p56.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Shackleton in 1901, aged 27|alt=A black-and-white photo of Shackleton in three-quarters profile]]
Shackleton's restlessness at school was such that he was allowed to leave at sixteen and go to sea.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=11}} One option was a [[Royal Navy]] officer cadetship in the {{HMS|Britannia|1869|2}} at [[Dartmouth, Devon|Dartmouth]], but this was too expensive, and Shackleton passed the upper age limit of fourteen and a half in 1888. Alternatives were the [[Merchant Navy (United Kingdom)|mercantile marine]] cadet ships [[Thames Nautical Training College|''Worcester'']] and {{HMS|Conway|school ship|2}}, or an apprenticeship "before the mast" on a sailing vessel. This third option was chosen.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=11}} His father was able to secure him a berth with the North Western Shipping Company, aboard the [[square-rigged]] sailing ship ''Hoghton Tower''.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=11}}

Over the next four years at sea, Shackleton learned his trade and visited many parts of the world, forming a variety of acquaintances and learning to associate with people from many different walks of life.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=13–18}} In August 1894, he passed his examination for second mate and accepted a post as [[Third mate|third officer]] on a [[tramp steamer]] of the Welsh Shire Line.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=13–18}} Two years later, he had obtained his first mate's ticket, and in 1898, he was certified as a [[master mariner]], qualifying him to command a British ship anywhere in the world.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=13–18}}

In 1900, he joined [[Union-Castle Line]], the regular mail and passenger carrier between Britain and South Africa.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=19}} One of his shipmates recorded that Shackleton was "a departure from our usual type of young officer", content with his own company though not aloof, "spouting lines from [[John Keats|Keats]] or [[Robert Browning|Browning]]", a mixture of sensitivity and aggression but not unsympathetic.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=20–23}} Following the outbreak of the [[Boer War]] in 1899, Shackleton transferred to the [[troopship]] ''Tintagel Castle'' where, in March 1900, he met Cedric Longstaff, an army lieutenant whose father [[Llewellyn W. Longstaff]] was the main financial backer of the [[British National Antarctic Expedition]] then being organised in London.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=25–30}}

Shackleton used his acquaintance with the son to obtain an interview with Longstaff senior, with a view to obtaining a place on the expedition. Impressed by Shackleton's keenness, Longstaff recommended him to [[Sir Clements Markham]], the expedition's overlord, making it clear that he wanted Shackleton accepted.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=25–30}} On 17&nbsp;February 1901, his appointment as third officer to the expedition's ship {{RRS|Discovery||2}} was confirmed; on 4&nbsp;June he was commissioned into the Royal Navy, with the rank of sub-lieutenant in the [[Royal Naval Reserve]].{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=42}}<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27322|page=3926|date=11 June 1901}}</ref> Although officially on leave from Union-Castle, this was in fact the end of Shackleton's Merchant Navy service.{{sfn|Huntford|1985|pp=25–30}}