Brocklehurst, Philip Lee 1887-1975

Philip Lee Brocklehurst was born in Swythamley Park, Staffordshire on 7 March 1887, becoming the second baronet in 1903. In 1906, while an undergraduate at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he met Ernest Henry Shackleton and the following year joined the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909 (led by Shackleton), as a scientific assistant. Badly frostbitten feet prevented him from making the first ascent of Mount Erebus, but the subsequent amputation of his toe did not prevent him from participating in several other journeys exploring the Taylor Valley and Ferrar Glacier.

Enlisting in the Derbyshire Imperial Yeomanry, he served with the First Life Guards during the First World War, and between 1918 and 1920, with the Egyptian Army. In 1924, he was made a brevet lieutenant colonel. During the Second World War, he commanded the Second Regiment Arab Legion Merchandised Brigade and from 1943 to 1944, served with the British Council in Palestine-Trans-Jordan. After the war, he tended his estate.

He died on 28 January 1975, the last survivor of Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909.

From the guide to the Philip Brocklehurst collection, 1907-1908, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)