Frank Arthur Worsley DSO* OBE RD (1872 – 1943)

By Simon Leifer, Chair, Esher Residents Association

Many will be admirers of Ernest Shackleton and his crew’s amazing navigational feats on the Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, so I will not go into great detail here but, did you know that Frank Worsley, the New Zealand born sailor and explorer who captained ‘Endurance’, had English parents and died in Claygate?

Frank Worsley c1914/16

In 1914, Shackleton was preparing to be first to cross the Antarctic continent. Scott’s failure in 1911 to beat Norwegian Roald Amundsen to the South Pole was considered a blot on Britain’s polar reputation and Shackleton’s expedition was to restore it! He set up headquarters in London and interviewed candidates for the expedition. Worsley was in London and had dreamt that he navigated a ship around icebergs drifting down Burlington Street. He noticed a sign advertising the ‘Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition’ so went to meet Shackleton and was offered the captaincy of ‘Endurance’.

In 1915, ‘Endurance’ was wrecked, trapped in pack ice. The crew sailed three lifeboats to Elephant Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula and Worsley, Shackleton and four others sailed a 6.9m (22.5-foot) lifeboat 1,300 km (800 miles) across the South Atlantic Ocean to their intended destination, South Georgia. Worsley’s navigation skills were crucial to their safe arrival. Shackleton, Worsley and Tom Crean then trekked for 36 hours braving snowy mountainous terrain to fetch help from Stromness whaling station. Worsley and Shackleton returned to Elephant Island on a Chilean naval ship to rescue the remaining expedition members, all of whom survived. 

After this and many other voyages, Worsley returned to London and in 1926 married Jean Cumming nearly 30 years his junior.

In 1942, Worsley (then 70) was appointed as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve trainer and transferred to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer he opted to spend his last days with Jean and good friends, the Bamford family in Claygate. He died in the Bamford home in1943 and his ashes were scattered at the mouth of the Thames near the Nore lightship. 

After Frank’s death, Jean went to live with her mother then returned to Claygate to the Bamfords. She was well off as Worsley had invested in Venezuela, later Shell Oil! She died at the Bamford’s in 1978 in the same room as had Frank. 

Little known facts: The crew wore the same clothes for 18 months. They were fortified by smoking dried seaweed after their pipe tobacco ran out and more so by ‘Victorian Marching Powder’. Legal then, but no longer. We call it cocaine!

Endurance in full sail c1914/17

3D scan shows Endurance lying 3000m below sea level. Image Flaklands Maritime Heritage Trust/National Geographic