Thomas Hans Orde-Lees was born in Germany of Anglo-Irish stock in 1879. He was educated at Marlborough College, the Royal Naval School in Gosport and Sandhurst in England. He was commissioned in the Royal Marines, eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. A skier and physical fitness expert, he was seconded by the navy to the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition [Weddell Sea Party], 1914-1916 (leader Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton), with the official position of motor expert. He took charge of the tractors (including some of his own design) and stores.
After the expedition he joined the Royal Flying Corps, entering the balloon service and developing parachutes during the First World War. Retiring from the Royal Marines, he lived in Japan, where he lectured at Kobe University and was a correspondent for The Times . He died in Wellington, New Zealand on 2 December 1958.
Published work, Thomas H. Orde-Lees, the life and diaries ed by John Thomson, Bluntisham Books, 2003, SPRI Library Shelf 92[Orde-Lees]
From the guide to the Thomas Hans Orde-Lees collection, 1914-1917, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
