FRANK WILD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 4

FRANK WILD

GREAT EXPLORER DEAD

ANTARCTIC EXPEDITIONS

AN IDEAL COMRA&E

Commander Frank Wild, R.N.V.R. .(retired), the South polar -explorer, died at Klerksdorp, Transvaal, ,on August 20, from pneumonia. He was 65 years old.

Wild took part in more Antarctic ex- [ peditions than any other explorer, not excepting even the late Sir Ernest . Shackleton, for he was engaged, in all ; the expeditions in which Shackleton . went South, and, in addition, was a j member of the Australasian Antarctic t Expedition under Sir Douglas, Ma wson. He was essentially a man of action and <a lover of the adventurous. He was a little man, keen and alert, and easily picked up a good working knowledge of many subjects during the various expeditions in which he took part. The narrative which he contributed,' as leader of the Western Party, to Sir Douglas Ma wson's "Home of the Blizzard" was well written and interesting. The secret of his success {layin his personal qualities. He had extraordinary powers of adaptation to the severest conditions. With an iron constitution, he bore fatigue, and privalion unflinchingly. Always cool and collected, taking both £ood and bad fortune with a smile, he was an ideal comrade in an emergency, courageous and resourceful, quick to anticipate the right thing to do. DIRECT DESCENDANT OF COOK. Born at Skelton, in Yorkshire,. in 1874. John Hobert Francis-Wild was educated at Bedford. On his mother's side he was a direct descendant. of Captain James Cook, the famous navigator, who was the first to cross the Antarctic Circle, just 100 years before Wild's birth, and one of Wild's, uncles , had been on three voyages to the Arc-, tic regions. Wild went to sea at the. age of 16, and saw much of the world before he joined the Navy as an ablebodied seaman in 1900. In the follow- , ing year he was selected to serve in: the National Antarctic Expedition ia the Discovery under Commander" (afterwards Captain) Robert Scott, R.N. Though only rated as an A.8., Wild gave evidence on this expeditioa of the qualities which so peculiarly. fitted him for the hazards and hardships of polar exploration. As one of the officers of the Discovery Expedition, Shackleton learned to. appreciate Wild's merits* and on his Antarctic Expedition in 1907-09 he not only took Wild with him and placed him in charge of the provisions, but selected him as one of his companions in the attempt to reach the South Pole. Though the attempt failed, the party beat allprevious records, reaching lax. 88deg 23min S., or only 97 geographical miles from the Pole. On that southern journey Wild attended to the re-. pairs of the sledges and equipment and assisted his leader in making geological. observations and collecting specimens. • It was he who found 8: the outcrop qt coal on the Upper Beardmore Glacier,, at an elevation .of about^pOQfJtpin la.^-, 85deg S. ,-r ; "~;;,:-^ / v :r -^ <--:.-. ■,*_%;> .^:-Mh AT ELEPHANT ISLAND. ■>'*■ 'j A member of the Shackleton, Expedi-i A tion was Mr. (now Sir) liouglas Maw-;-: son, and he was so impressed by what he saw of Wild that when he organised the Australasian Antarctic Expedition: in 1911 he included him on his staftVWild was appointed leader of the West- ■■-■ erri Party, which wintered on the edges of the Antarctic Continent, practically on the Antarctic Circle, in about 95deg E. During 1912-13 sledge journeys aggregating 800 ."niles were carried out, and the region explored was afterwards named, by special permission, Queen Mary Land. Sir Douglas Mawson has left it on record that "Wild won the sincere regard of the members of his party, and the admiration of all for the splendid way in which he executed the difficult task entrusted to him " When Wild got back from the Australasian Expedition Sir Ernest •Shackleton asked him to go Soutii again as second in command of the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, and in August* 1914, he sailed with Sir Ernest for the Weddell Sea, which; was to be the base of an attempt to cross the Antarctic Continent to the Boss Sea via the South Pole. The loss of the expedition's ship in the ice upset all plans, but Wild, like Sir Ernest Shackleton, showed himself at his best in the hour of defeat. Sir Ernesfc narrative of the retreat over, and through the drifting ice of the Weddell Sea contained many references to the steadfast qualities of Wild. When the shipwrecked explorers reached Elephant Island, Wild was very anxious to share with his leader the dangers of the boat voyage to South Georgia in search of relief, but he had to stay behind, to hold the party together while Shackleton was away. The trust reposed in Wild was fully justified, for when the men were rescued ■-from Elephant Island, not one was missing. On the return- of the expedition to Europe in 1916 Wild joined the naval forces and early in: 1917 was given a commission as a: temporary lieutenant, R.N;V.R., and sentto the North Russian Front, where he served as a transport officer with ability and zeal. In 1918 he was released by. the Admiralty to take part in an expedition to Spitsbergen—then, the object* of a. good deal of international ' attentiorir-and was placed in charge of & winter camp established, on Lowe Sound, by a British company which had staked out extensive claims there. • In/ the NewYear Honours of; 1920 he was made C B.E. After about 20 years of Polar exploration Wild decided to live in wanner climes.' With the surgeon :of the Weddell Sea Expedition, Mr. McIllroy, he went; out to Nyasaland to try his fortune asa planter, but at the invitation of Sir Ernest Shackleton he jointed a new expedition, and in September, 1921, sailed south with Sir Ernest in the Quest as second in command. On the sudden death of Shackleton at South Georgia in January, 1922, he assumed the command, continued the voyage to the Enderby Quadrant of the Antarctic regions, and then brought the ship back to England. In 1923 he published a book, "Shackleton's Last Voyage," though as Shackleton died as the ship was entering the Polar seas Wild himself was' ih1 fact the leader of, 'the' expedition. Wild was awarded the Patron's .Medial of ) the Royal Geographical Society in 1924 -tor his long services to Antarctic exploration, and a Civil List'pension of £170 a year last Mayl ; Since '1922 he-had lived in South Africa.. In that: year he married Mrs. Granville. Altmanilthe widow of a tea planter of Borneo; After Mr. Altaian's death in the wsjvshenyas stranded in Russia, and Wild rescued her from her plight; .•:■■ ;;.H>:•' ■■;