Polar Medal 1904

Monarch	Issue & Type		Obverse Style & Inscription	Dates
Edward VII	1	EVII 1	An effigy of the King in Field Marshal's uniform, facing left EDWARDVS VII REX IMPERATOR	1901 - 1910
George V	2	GV 1	An effigy of the King in the uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet GEOGIVS V BRITT: OMN: REX ET IND: IMP.	1910 - ????
George V	3	GV 2	An effigy of the King wearing a crown and coronation robes GEORGIVS.V.D’G BRITT.OMN. REX. ET INDIAE. IMP.	???? - ????
George V	4	GV 3	King George V coinage effigy GEORGIVS V BRITT: OMN: REX ET IND: IMP:	???? - 1936
George VI	5	GVI 1	George VI coinage effigy GEORGIVS VI D:G: BR: OMN: REX F:D: IND: IMP:	1937 - 1952
Elizabeth II	6	E:R 1	Elizabeth II coinage effigy ELIZABETH II DEI GRA: BRITT: OMN: REGINA F:D: +	1952 -

Edward VII silver issue from	£5000.00
Edward VII Bronze issue from	£3000.00
George V silver issue from	£3000.00
George V bronze issue from	£3000.00
George VI silver issue from	£2500.00
George VI bronze issue from	£3000.00
Elizabeth II issue from	£2500.00

 

- Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

- The Discovery Expedition.

- The Terra Nova Expedition.

- Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton.

- The British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09.

- The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-17.

 

Captain Robert Falcon Scott - Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO, RN (6 June 1868 - c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901-04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910-13. On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Polar Plateau, on which the South Pole is located.

 

During the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott's party discovered plant fossils, proving Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. At a distance of 150 miles from their base camp and 11 miles from the next depot, Scott and his companions died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

 

Before his appointment to lead the Discovery Expedition, Scott had followed the conventional career of a naval officer in peacetime Victorian Britain. In 1899, he had a chance encounter with Sir Clements Markham, the president of the Royal Geographical Society, and learned for the first time of a planned Antarctic expedition. A few days later, on 11 June, Scott appeared at the Markham residence and volunteered to lead the expedition.

 

Having taken this step, his name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic, the field of work to which he remained committed during the final 12 years of his life.

 

Following the news of his death, Scott became an iconic British hero, a status reflected by the many permanent memorials erected across the nation. In the closing decades of the 20th century, the legend was reassessed as attention focused on the causes of the disaster that ended his and his comrades' lives. From a previously unassailable position, Scott became a figure of controversy, with questions raised about his competence and character.

 

Commentators in the 21st century have on the whole regarded Scott more positively, emphasising his personal bravery and stoicism while acknowledging his errors and, more recently, errors by his team members, but ascribing the expedition's fate primarily to misfortune.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Discovery Expedition - The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage 60 years earlier.

 

Organized on a large scale under a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the new expedition aimed to carry out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent. It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Robert Falcon Scott who led the expedition, Ernest Shackleton, Edward Wilson, Frank Wild, Tom Crean and William Lashly.

 

Its scientific results covered extensive ground in biology, zoology, geology, meteorology and magnetism. The expedition discovered the existence of the only snow-free Antarctic valleys, which contain Antarctica's longest river.

 

Further achievements included the discoveries of the Cape Crozier emperor penguin colony, King Edward VII Land, and the Polar Plateau (via the western mountains route) on which the South Pole is located. The expedition did not make a serious attempt on the South Pole itself, with the principal southern journey travelling only as far as the Farthest South mark at a reported 82°17′S.

 

As a trailbreaker for later ventures, the Discovery Expedition was a landmark in British Antarctic exploration history. After its return home it was celebrated as a success, despite having needed an expensive relief mission to free Discovery and its crew from the ice, and later disputes about the quality of some of its scientific records.

 

It has been asserted that the expedition's main failure was its inability to master the techniques of efficient polar travel using skis and dogs, a legacy that persisted in British Antarctic expeditions throughout the Heroic Age.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Terra Nova Expedition - The Terra Nova Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objectives of scientific research (meteorological, geological, geographical and zoological) and also of being the first to reach the South Pole.

 

Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, where they found that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had preceded them by 34 days. Scott's entire party died on the return journey from the pole; some of their bodies, journals, and photographs were discovered by a search party eight months later.

 

Scott was an experienced polar commander, having previously led the Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic in 1901-04. The Terra Nova Expedition, named after its supply ship, was a private venture, financed by public contributions augmented by a government grant. It had further backing from the Admiralty, which released experienced seamen to the expedition, and from the Royal Geographical Society.

 

As well as its polar attempt, the expedition carried out a comprehensive scientific programme, and explored Victoria Land and the Western Mountains. An attempted landing and exploration of King Edward VII Land was unsuccessful. A journey to Cape Crozier in June and July 1911 was the first extended sledging journey in the depths of the Antarctic winter.

 

For many years after his death, Scott's status as tragic hero was unchallenged, and few questions were asked about the causes of the disaster which overcame his polar party. In the final quarter of the 20th century the expedition came under closer scrutiny, and more critical views were expressed about its organization and management. The degree of Scott's personal culpability, and more recently, the culpability of certain expedition members, remains a matter of controversy among commentators.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton - Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE, FRGS (15 February 1874 - 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish explorer who participated in four British expeditions to the Antarctic, of which he led three.

 

During the first expedition 1901-04, he and his companions Scott and Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S.

 

During the second expedition 1907-09 he and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 97 geographical miles (112 statute miles, 180 km) from the South Pole, the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Also, members of his team climbed Mount Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano.

 

For these achievements, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home.

 

After the race to the South Pole ended in December 1911 with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole. To this end he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17.

 

Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, ‘Endurance’, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. The crew escaped by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then by launching the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately the inhabited island of South Georgia, a stormy ocean voyage of 720 nautical miles.

 

This exploit would assure Shackleton's status as one of the principal figures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. In 1921, he returned to the Antarctic with the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, but died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. At his wife's request he was buried there.

 

Away from his expeditions, Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled. In his search for rapid pathways to wealth and security, he launched business ventures which failed to prosper, and he died heavily in debt.

 

Upon his death, he was lauded in the press, but was thereafter largely forgotten, while the heroic reputation of his rival Scott was sustained for many decades. Later in the 20th century, Shackleton was ‘rediscovered’, and rapidly became a role model for leadership as one who, in extreme circumstances, kept his team together in a survival story described by polar historian Stephanie Barczewski as ‘incredible’.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09 - The British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to the South Pole.

 

This was not attained, but the expedition's southern march reached a Farthest South latitude of 88° 23' S, just 97.5 nautical miles (180.6 km; 112.2 mi) from the pole. This was by far the longest southern polar journey to that date and a record convergence on either Pole. A separate group led by Welsh Australian geology professor Edgeworth David reached the estimated location of the South Magnetic Pole, and the expedition also achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus, Antarctica's second highest volcano.

 

The expedition lacked governmental or institutional support, and relied on private loans and individual contributions. It was beset by financial problems and its preparations were hurried. Its ship, Nimrod, was less than half of the size of Robert Falcon Scott's 1901-04 expedition ship Discovery, and Shackleton's crew lacked relevant experience.

 

Controversy arose from Shackleton's decision to base the expedition in McMurdo Sound, close to Scott's old headquarters, in contravention of a promise to Scott that he would not do so. Nevertheless, although the expedition's profile was initially much lower than that of Scott's six years earlier, its achievements attracted nationwide interest and made a public hero out of Shackleton.

 

The scientific team, which included the future Australasian Antarctic Expedition leader Douglas Mawson, carried out extensive geological, zoological and meteorological work. Shackleton's transport arrangements, based on Manchurian ponies, motor traction, and sled dogs, were innovations which, despite limited success, were later copied by Scott for his ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition.

 

On his return, Shackleton overcame the Royal Geographical Society's initial scepticism about his achievements and received many public honours, including a knighthood from King Edward VII. He made little financial gain from the expedition and eventually depended on a government grant to cover its liabilities.

 

Within three years his southernmost record had been surpassed, as first Amundsen and then Scott reached the South Pole. In his own moment of triumph, Amundsen nevertheless observed: ‘Sir Ernest Shackleton's name will always be written in the annals of Antarctic exploration in letters of fire’

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-17 - The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-17, also known as the Endurance Expedition, is considered the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent.

 

After the conquest of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911, this crossing from sea to sea remained, in Shackleton's words, the ’…one great main object of Antarctic journeyings’. The expedition failed to accomplish this objective, but became recognised instead as an epic feat of endurance.

 

Shackleton - had served in the Antarctic on Captain Scott's Discovery Expedition, 1901-04, and had led the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-09. In this new expedition he proposed to sail to the Weddell Sea and to land a shore party near Vahsel Bay, in preparation for a transcontinental march through the South Pole to the Ross Sea.

 

A supporting group, the Ross Sea party, would meanwhile travel to the opposite side of the continent, establish camp in McMurdo Sound, and from there lay a series of supply depots across the Ross Ice Shelf to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier.

 

These depots would be essential for the transcontinental party's survival, as the party would not be able to carry enough provisions for the entire crossing. The expedition required two ships: Endurance under Shackleton for the Weddell Sea party, and Aurora, under Captain Aeneas Mackintosh, for the Ross Sea party.

 

Endurance became beset in the ice of the Weddell Sea before reaching Vahsel Bay, and despite efforts to free it, drifted northward, held in the pack ice, throughout the Antarctic winter of 1915. Eventually the ship was crushed and sank, stranding its 28-man complement on the ice.

 

After months spent in makeshift camps as the ice continued its northwards drift, the party took to the lifeboats to reach the inhospitable, uninhabited Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others then made an 800-mile (1,287 km) open-boat journey in the James Caird to reach South Georgia using a Thomas Mercer chronometer.

 

From there, Shackleton was eventually able to mount a rescue of the men waiting on Elephant Island and bring them home without loss of life. On the other side of the continent, the Ross Sea party overcame great hardships to fulfil its mission. Aurora was blown from her moorings during a gale and was unable to return, leaving the shore party marooned without proper supplies or equipment. Nevertheless the depots were laid, but three lives were lost in the process.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

End of database.