Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton

Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton, Baron Shackleton,  (15 July 1911 – 22 September 1994) was a British geographer, Royal Air Force officer and Labour Party politician.

Early life and career
Born in Wandsworth, London, Shackleton was the younger son of Emily Mary and Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer. The young Edward Shackleton was educated at Radley College, an independent boarding school for boys in Oxfordshire, followed by Magdalen College, Oxford.

Shackleton arranged the 1932 Oxford University Exploration Club expedition to Sarawak in Borneo organised by Tom Harrisson. During this trip, he made the first ascent of Mount Mulu.

In 1934 Shackleton organised the Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition and chose Gordon Noel Humphreys to lead it. Shackleton accompanied the party as assistant surveyor to Humphreys. The expedition was eventually responsible for naming Mount Oxford (after the University of Oxford) and the British Empire Range.  On leaving the university, he worked as a Talks Producer for the BBC in Northern Ireland – an experience that turned him away from the Conservatives towards Labour.

Royal Air Force service
Shackleton served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. On 29 July 1940, he was commissioned into the Administrative and Special Duties Branch, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, as a pilot officer on probation. On 1 March 1941, he was promoted and granted the war substantive rank of flying officer. Following the probationary period, his commission was confirmed on 29 July 1941. He was promoted to flight lieutenant (temporary) on 1 September 1942, and made a war substantive flight lieutenant on 15 February 1944. He was an acting squadron leader by June 1944, and an acting wing commander by June 1945.

In 1944, Shackleton was mentioned in despatches. In the 1945 King's Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Shackleton relinquished his commission on 15 July 1956 and was granted permission to retain the rank of wing commander.

Political life
Shackleton stood unsuccessfully for Labour at Epsom in the 1945 general election and in the 1945 Bournemouth by-election. In 1946, he was elected for Labour as Member of Parliament for Preston in a by-election.  In 1949 he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of Supply, George Strauss.

A boundary change divided Preston into two seats, and in 1950 Shackleton was elected as MP for Preston South on a much-reduced majority.  The following year, he was promoted to be PPS to Lord President of the Council and Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison, one of the heavyweight political figures in the post-war government.  He was re-elected in 1951.

At the 1955 election, he was defeated. Hugh Gaitskell recommended Shackleton to the Prime Minister, and on 11 August 1958 he was created a life peer by letters patent as Baron Shackleton, of Burley in the County of Southampton. Shackleton delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 11 November 1958, in a debate on a Wages Councils bill, one he thoroughly approved of and welcomed, to increase understanding between unions and management.

In Harold Wilson's government, he served as Minister of Defence for the RAF 1964–67.  He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1966 and made Deputy Leader of the House of Lords a year later.  As Minister without Portfolio, 1967–1968, and Paymaster General in 1968, he had a seat on the cabinet.  During the Aden Emergency he was sent on a Special Mission as British Resident to help with the British withdrawal.

In April 1968, after the budget, Wilson made Shackleton Leader of the House of Lords, succeeding the Earl of Longford.

Shackleton was active in Wilson's proposals for House of Lords reform, designed to reduce the Lords delaying powers from two years to just six months, and he liaised between committees and sub-committees, but in April 1969 Wilson dropped the bill to "concentrate on priorities."  Sitting on the committee for Civil Service Reform, Shackleton successfully widened access to entry for scientists.

Shackleton remained Leader of the House of Lords until a Conservative government was elected in 1970 and thereafter was Opposition Leader in the Lords.

From 1971, Shackleton was President of the Royal Geographical Society. Lord Shackleton was appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1974. From 1976 until 1992 he was Chairman of the joint-Political Honours and Scrutiny Committee.  Lord Shackleton's report, commissioned by James Callaghan described the economic future of the Falkland Islands, the value of the being British to the islanders, and how their lot could be improved.  It included the invaluable role eventually played by HMS Endurance.

Between 1988 and 1989 he chaired the Lords Science and Technology Committee and in 1989 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society under Statute 12, effectively an honorary fellow. He also served as Chairman of the East European Trade Council

In 1990 Shackleton was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour, "for service to Australian/British relations, particularly through the Britain–Australia Society.

Lord Shackleton was Pro-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, in which role he was deeply interested in the development of geography at Southampton. A portrait photograph of Lord Shackleton was unveiled by his daughter Alexandra Shackleton in December 1997 in the university's Shackleton Building, which houses the Departments of Geography and Psychology.

In 1994 he became the Life President of the newly founded James Caird Society, named after the boat in which his explorer father and crew escaped Antarctica (itself, in turn, named for James Key Caird [1837–1916], jute baron and philanthropist). He acted also as patron of the British Schools Exploring Society (B.S.E.S.) from 1962 until his death in the New Forest aged 83.

Personal life
In 1938 Shackleton married Betty Homan, and they had two children, Alexandra (born 1940) and Charles (1942-1979).

Arms

Lord Shackleton's Garter banner, which hung in St. George's Chapel in Windsor during his lifetime, is now on display in Christ Church Cathedral, Falkland Islands.

References

Bibliography

 Hattersley-Smith, Geoffrey. Geographical Names of the Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve and Vicinity. Calgary, Alberta, Canada: Arctic Institute of North America, 1998. .

External links

University of Southampton website ("Shackleton portrait unveiled in Geography Department")
BSES
Archive collection of Edward Shackleton collection with bio/history
 
 Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Arthur Edward Alexander Shackleton MP, Baron Shackleton, 1911-1994

Ernest Shackleton
1911 births
1994 deaths
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
British Secretaries of State
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Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Shackleton of Burley
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Shackleton, Edward Arthur Alexander
Royal Canadian Geographical Society fellows
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