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Medals of Yorkshire's Antarctic hero fetch double pre-sale auction estimate
A YORKSHIRE adventurer's medals have been reunited as one collection after 70 years, fetching double their estimate at a London auction.
Commander Frank Wild from the Skelton, near Wakefield, was the only man to explore Antarctica five times between 1901 and 1922, a period known as the heroic age of polar exploration.
He was widely honoured by various governments during his lifetime but his decorations were divided up by his family after he died in poverty in South Africa in 1939.
One group made 50,000 at auction in December 2007 and the second and final group of two recently took 132,000, double the pre-sale estimate, at Dix, Noonan and Webb, a firm of medal specialists, in Mayfair, London.
His CBE and 1904 Polar Medal, with four clasps for subsequent expeditions were bought by the same anonymous collector, thus reuniting them for the first time since Wild's death.
Nimrod Dix, senior director of the firm said: "It was a very satisfactory outcome to see these medals come together again after so long.
"Wild was a remarkable man from the heroic age of polar exploration when men underwent incredible privations. Yet he took part in more expeditions than any other."
John Robert Francis Wild was the oldest of eight brothers and three daughters.
The family came from Skelton, close to Marton, birthplace of Captain James Cook, who the family was distantly related to.
Known as Frank, he joined the merchant navy at 15 and transferred to the Royal Navy in 1900.
He went on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's first expedition to Antarctica in 1901 and returned with Ernest Shackleton in 1907.
Wild was asked by Shackleton to go south again in 1914.
But this time their ship Endurance was trapped in thick black ice, was crushed and sank. Wild was left in charge for five months as Shackleton and others sought help in what became known as one of the most arduous rescue journeys of all.
In an open boat retrieved from the wreck he sailed to South Georgia to rescue his colleagues. After months in isolation all 26 men were saved.
Wild said of being rescued: "I felt jolly near blubbing."
Nevertheless, he became second in command of what was Shackleton's final expedition south in 1921.
Wild assumed command after the death of Shackleton in South Georgia in 1922 and continued the voyage before returning home in 1923. The following year he emigrated to South Africa.
The explorer died of pneumonia and diabetes on August 19, 1939 in Klerksdorp.
He was cremated four days later in the Braamfontein Cemetery in Johannesburg.
He was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours List of 1920 and was the recipient of a number of awards for his contributions to exploration and advancing geography.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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