Ernest Shackleton

Born in County Kildare in 1874, Shackleton moved to London at ten and went south young: Robert Falcon Scott sent him home early from the 1901 Discovery expedition on health grounds, though not before the party reached 82° S. He returned with the Nimrod Expedition in 1907 and pushed to within 97 geographical miles of the pole - the largest leap forward in polar history - before turning back, later knighted by Edward VII. When Amundsen won the race in 1911, Shackleton pivoted to a trans-Antarctic crossing. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launched in 1914, but Endurance was crushed and sank in the Weddell Sea in November 1915. What followed was survival: ice camp, lifeboats, Elephant Island, then Shackleton and five men crossing the Southern Ocean to fetch rescue. He sailed south again in 1921 and died of a heart attack off South Georgia at forty-seven, buried there at his wife's request. His rival Scott stayed famous for decades while Shackleton faded, only to be rediscovered late in the century as a model for leadership when everything goes wrong.