Thomas Orde - Lees Thomas Hans Orde - Lees ( 1877 – 1958 ) was a member of Sir Ernest Shackleton ' s Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition of 1914 – 1917 , a pioneer in the field of parachuting , and was one of the first non - Japanese - born men known to have climbed Mount Fuji during the winter . Early life . Thomas Hans Orde - Lees was born on 23 May 1877 , officially during his parents ' holiday in Aachen in what was then Prussia . In fact he was the illegitimate child of Thomas Orde Hastings Lees , a former barrister and the Chief Constable of Northampton , and Ada Mary Pattenden ( 1852 – 1932 ) , a daughter of the Reverend Canon George Edwin Pattenden , headmaster of Boston Grammar School . Ada was sent off to Thomas ' brother ' s house in Aachen for the birth . The Lees family was well off ; they lived in the Northampton Chief Constable ' s house with a number of servants . Thomas the Elder ' s wife , Grace Lees ( née Bateman ) , agreed to bring up young Thomas as her own . She was made godmother of Ada ' s nephew Frederick Geoffrey Lees Johnson ( 1880 – 1951 ) , an arrangement that provided cover for Grace , Ada and Thomas the Elder to meet up regularly . Ada married Arthur John Coleridge Mackarness , a solicitor , in 1890 . Following the death of Thomas the Elder in 1924 , Grace took up residence with Arthur and Ada Mackarness at Petersfield . Thomas the Younger kept up with his biological mother until her death in 1932 . Orde - Lees was educated at Marlborough College , The Royal Naval Academy at Gosport ( whose headmaster was Ada ' s brother - in - law , Frederick George Johnson ) and Sandhurst Military Academy . He joined the Royal Marines , eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel . In 1900 he was posted to China and saw action during the Boxer Rebellion . Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition . In 1910 Orde - Lees applied for a place on Scott ' s Terra Nova expedition , but was turned down . When Shackleton was organizing the Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition he decided that he needed a representative from the Royal Navy in order to get political and military support for the expedition . Orde - Lees as a skier and motor expert fitted the bill , and after Shackleton applied to Churchill for permission , Orde - Lees was released from his military duties and allowed to join the expedition as storekeeper . On board ship he proved unpopular with the rest of the crew — he had a surly , condescending manner and was undisguisedly lazy . Nevertheless he was an efficient storekeeper . He had a keen interest in physical fitness and took his bicycle on the expedition ; after the ship became trapped in the ice he frequently took cycling trips on the ice . Shackleton ordered him not to leave the ship unaccompanied after he became lost while searching for food , and encountered a fierce leopard seal . His cries brought Frank Wild ( second in command ) out of his tent , and shot the leopard seal . It wasn ' t until the leopard seal was thirty feet away from Frank Wild , that the leopard seal was killed . When the " Endurance " was crushed by pack ice , Shackleton took the three lifeboats and led the men over the ice to open water where they used the boats to travel to Elephant Island . Orde - Lees was assigned to the " Dudley Docker " under the command of Frank Worsley but failed to pitch in with the other men when a gale threatened to sink the small craft . Despite orders from Worsley , he climbed into his sleeping bag rather than helping with the rowing , although he immediately undertook strenuous and prolonged bailing duty when it looked as if the boat was going to sink . Once the boats had arrived at Elephant Island , Shackleton and five men set out for South Georgia in the " James Caird " to fetch help . The remaining men , including Orde - Lees , were to spend months living in the remaining two boats , overturned and reinforced with stones and lit by blubber lamps . They were finally rescued on 30 August 1916 . For his part in the expedition Orde - Lees received the Silver Polar Medal . After the expedition . Parachutist . On Orde - Lees ' return to England , World War I was being fought . After serving on the Western Front in the Balloon Corps , Orde - Lees , with the assistance of Shackleton , secured a place in the Royal Flying Corps where he became an enthusiastic advocate for the use of parachute s . He jumped from Tower Bridge into the River Thames to prove their effectiveness and as a result a parachute division was formed with Orde - Lees in command . After the war , he resigned his commission ( reportedly rather than facing a Court Martial after his involvement with a parachuting course for women sponsored by the " Daily Mail " ) and moved to Japan where he taught parachuting techniques to the Japanese Air Force . Japan : Mount Fuji . In Japan , Orde - Lees is best known for his winter climbs on Mount Fuji . After an unsuccessful attempt in January 1922 , Orde - Lees and a climbing companion , H . S . Crisp , successfully summitted the iconic stratovolcano on 12 February 1922 . After his parachute - training duties ceased , Orde - Lees continued to live in Tokyo . He worked for a time as a correspondent for " The Times " , which led to an appointment at the British Embassy . His first wife having died , he remarried to a local Japanese woman , Hisako Hoya . He spent almost 20 years teaching English and reading the English news on Japanese Radio . New Zealand . When Japan entered World War II in 1941 , Orde - Lees , as a resident alien and citizen of a hostile power , was allowed to leave with his family ; they moved to Wellington , New Zealand . There he took a menial job at the New Zealand Correspondence School , although there were rumours that he was working as a spy for the British Government . After the war he wrote a regular children ' s travel column in the Southern Cross Newspaper and helped organise the Commonwealth Trans - Antarctic Expedition . He died on 1 December 1958 after being confined to a mental hospital due to his dementia . He is buried in Karori Cemetery , Wellington , close to fellow " Endurance " crew member , Harry McNish .