Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Shackleton
Office:Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords
Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
Term Start:19 June 1970
Term End:4 March 1974
Predecessor:The Lord Carrington
Successor:The Lord Carrington
Office1:Leader of the House of Lords
Monarch1:Elizabeth II
Primeminister1:Harold Wilson
Term Start1:16 January 1968
Term End1:20 June 1970
Predecessor1:The Earl of Longford
Successor1:The Earl Jellicoe
Office2:Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
Term Start2:16 January 1968
Term End2:6 April 1968
Predecessor2:The Earl Longford
Successor2:Fred Peart
Monarch2:Elizabeth II
Primeminister2:Harold Wilson-->
Term Start3:1 November 1968
Term End3:20 June 1970
Predecessor3:Fred Peart
Successor3:The Earl Jellicoe
Office4:Paymaster General
Term Start4:6 April 1968
Term End4:1 November 1968
Monarch4:Elizabeth II
Primeminister4:Harold Wilson-->
Predecessor4:George Wigg
Successor4:Judith Hart
Office5:Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Term Start5:7 January 1967
Term End5:16 January 1968
Monarch5:Elizabeth II
Primeminister5:Harold Wilson
Leader5:The Earl of Longford
Predecessor5:The Lord Champion
Successor5:The Lord Shepherd
Office6:Minister without Portfolio
Term Start6:7 January 1967
Term End6:16 January 1968
Monarch6:Elizabeth II
Primeminister6:Harold Wilson
Predecessor6:Douglas Houghton
Successor6:Patrick Gordon Walker
Office7:Minister of State for the Air Force
Term Start7:19 October 1964
Term End7:7 January 1967
Monarch7:Elizabeth II
Primeminister7:Harold Wilson
Predecessor7:Hugh Fraser
Successor7:office abolished
Office11:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start11:11 August 1958
Term End11:22 September 1994
Life peerage
Office12:Member of Parliament
for Preston South
Term Start12:23 February 1950
Term End12:6 May 1955
Predecessor12:constituency established
Successor12:Alan Green
Office13:Member of Parliament
for Preston
Term Start13:31 January 1946
Term End13:3 February 1950
Predecessor13:John William Sunderland
Successor13:constituency abolished
Birth Date:15 July 1911
Death Date:22 September 1994 (aged 83)
Alma Mater:Magdalen College, Oxford
Children:2
Parents:Ernest Shackleton
Emily Dorman
Module:
Embed:yes
Allegiance:United Kingdom
Serviceyears:1940–1956
Servicenumber:83143

Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton, Baron Shackleton, [1] (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. Edward Shackleton was educated at Radley College, an independent boarding school for boys in Oxfordshire, followed by Magdalen College, Oxford.[2]

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.[3] [4]

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.[5] He also served as Chairman of the East European Trade Council[6]

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.[7]

Lord Shackleton was Pro-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, in which role he was deeply interested in the development of geography at Southampton.[5] 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 Winchester.

Personal life

In 1938 Shackleton married Betty Homan, and they had two children, Alexandra (born 1940) and Charles (1942-1979).[3]

Arms

Escutcheon:Or on a Fess Gules three Lozengy Buckles tongues palewise of the field, on a Canton of the second a Cross Humettée of the field.
Crest:A Poplar Tree proper charged with a Buckle as in the arms
Orders:Order of the Garter (Appointed 23 April 1974)
Motto:FORTITUDINE VINCIMIS (By Endurance We Conquer)

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.[8]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Jellicoe . T. E. . George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe. 10.1098/rsbm.1999.0032 . Lord Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton. 15 July 1911 – 22 September 1994: Elected F.R.S. 1989 . . 45 . 485 . 1999 . 186214379 .
  2. Web site: Obituary: Lord Shackleton. Tam Dalyell. Tam Dalyell. The Independent newspaper. 24 September 1994. 19 November 2014.
  3. 55707. Shackleton, Edward Arthur Alexander, Baron Shackleton.
  4. News: Lord Shackleton . . 24 September 1994 . 21.
  5. George . Jellicoe . George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe . Lord Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton. 15 July 1911 – 22 September 1994 . . 1 November 1999 . 45 . 485–505 . 10.1098/rsbm.1999.0032. 186214379 .
  6. Web site: My Lords, it is with a certain.
  7. https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/882096 Profile
  8. http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/assets/files/News%20Announcements/BannerListJune2015.pdf Lord Shackleton's Garter banner