Frank Wild
John Robert Francis "Frank" Wild ( born April 10, 1873 in Skelton, Yorkshire, † August 19 1939 in Klerksdorp, South Africa) was a British polar explorer. He took off in 1901, apart from the Terra Nova expedition, to all British Antarctic expeditions of the Golden Age of Antarctic research part.
From 1901 to 1904 Wild Expedition was a member of the Discovery expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. Here he met his longtime friend Ernest Shackleton know.
Wild accompanied Shackleton on the 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition. Together with Shackleton, Jameson Adams, Eric Marshall and he reached on January 9, 1909 88 ° 23 ' S, 162 ° 0' O 88.383333333333162, and thus the largest up to that achieved approximation to one of the two geographic poles of the earth.
From 1911 to 1914 he was part of the crew of the Aurora expedition led by Douglas Mawson. Here he oversaw the Shackleton Ice Shelf on the established base camp.
From 1914 to 1916 he took part in Shackleton's Endurance expedition part. As Shackleton along with five other members of the expedition set out on an adventurous journey with the James Caird to South Georgia to get help, Wild was the commander of those left behind on Elephant Iceland.
He then served with Shackleton in the First World War in Russia. Then he ran together with Francis Bickerton (1889-1954, a friend since the Mawson expedition with wild ) and James McIllroy (1879-1968, physician at the Endurance expedition ) a cotton farm on Lake Malawi. There, wild ill with malaria.
From 1921 to 1922 he was also a member of the Quest Expedition to where he became manager after Ernest Shackleton was in 1922 died of a heart attack at Grytviken on South Georgia.
Wild died in great poverty, having in the meantime broken through as a warehouse clerk in a South African diamond mine and most recently as a bartender a rundown pub, probably a result of his alcoholism. Attempts by some members of the Endurance expedition to help him came too late. Other sources speak of pneumonia as a cause of death.
Wilds wife was of the view that it was her husband's wish was to be buried next to Shackleton. His ashes were therefore never buried. It was not until over 60 years later, his remains were tracked down in South Africa. In November 2011, his ashes were brought to South Georgia and buried after a service in the presence of numerous descendants of Wild and Shackleton, next to Shackleton's grave.
Family
Wilds younger brother Ernest was a member of the supporting Ross Sea Party during the Endurance expedition.