Everything about Apsley Cherry-garrard totally explained
Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard (
January 2,
1886 –
May 18,
1959) was an
English explorer of
Antarctica. He was a survivor of the
Terra Nova Expedition and is acclaimed for his historical account of this expedition,
The Worst Journey in the World.
Early life
Born in
Bedford, as
Apsley George Benet Cherry, the son of Major General Apsley Cherry (later Cherry-Garrard) of
Lamer Park (
Hertfordshire) and
Denford House (
Berkshire),
High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, and his wife, Evelyn Edith, daughter of Henry Wilson Sharpin of Bedford. He was educated at
Winchester College and
Christ Church, Oxford. His surname was changed from Cherry to Cherry-Garrard by the terms of an aunt's will, through which his father inherited enormous estates near
Wheathampstead in
Hertfordshire.
Cherry-Garrard had always been enamoured by the stories of his father's achievements, and felt that he must live up to his father's example. In September 1907,
Dr. E.A. Wilson met with
Captain Scott at Reginald Smith's home in Cortachy, to discuss another Antarctic expedition. Smith's young cousin Apsley Cherry-Garrard happened to visit, and decided to volunteer.
Antarctica
At the age of 24, 'Cherry' was one of the youngest members of
Robert Falcon Scott's
Terra Nova expedition (
1910–
1913). This was Scott's second and last expedition to Antarctica. Cherry was initially rejected, but made a second application along with a promise of £1,000 towards the cost of the expedition. Rejected a second time, he made the donation regardless. Struck by this gesture, and at the same time persuaded by
Dr Edward 'Bill' Wilson, Scott agreed to take Cherry as assistant biologist.
With Wilson and
Lieutenant Henry 'Birdie' Bowers, Cherry made a trip to
Cape Crozier in July 1911 during the austral winter in order to secure an unhatched
Emperor penguin egg. Cherry suffered from high degree
myopia, seeing little without spectacles that he couldn't wear while sledging. In almost total darkness, and with temperatures ranging from -40°f to -70°f, they man-hauled their sledge 60 miles from Scott's base at
Cape Evans to the far side of
Ross Island. Frozen and exhausted, they reached their goal only to be pinned down by a blizzard. Their tent was ripped away and carried off by the wind, leaving the men in their sleeping bags under a thickening drift of snow, singing hymns above the sounds of the storm. When the winds subsided however, by great fortune they found their tent lodged nearby in rocks. Cherry-Gerrard suffered such cold that he shattered most of his teeth due to chattering in the frigid temperatures. Having successfully collected three eggs and desperately exhausted they eventually arrived back at Cape Evans, sometimes only managing a mile and a half a day. Cherry later referred to this as the 'worst journey in the world' at the suggestion of his neighbour
George Bernard Shaw, and gave this title to his book recounting the fate of the 1910-1913 expedition.
Cherry was afterwards responsible for helping lay depots of fuel and food on the intended route of the party which would attempt to reach the South Pole, and accompanied the team that would make the attempt on the
South Pole to the top of the
Beardmore Glacier. Cherry was in the first group of those four who returned on December 22, 1911. On his return, Cherry took over navigation on a number of occasions using the sight of his partner until his partner became
snow-blind. Without a sighted companion, Cherry managed to overcome his extreme myopia by navigating using the faint gleam of the sun.. In February 1912 Cherry was responsible for leading a team making one last supply run out to the 'One Ton Depot'. He waited there seven days hoping to meet the South Pole team on their return journey, although the mission was to resupply the dump and not to provide an escort for the polar party 'home' who weren't expected to reach this point for another week or two. Cherry finally turned back on March 10, 1912 in order to preserve his dog team which were short of food, and out of concern for the health of one of his team members. Nineteen days later, Scott, Wilson and Bowers died 11 miles south of the One Ton Depot in a blizzard.
By April 1912, with the Antarctic winter approaching, it was apparent to Cherry and the remaining expedition members that the South Pole team had died.
Atkinson took command, and Cherry suffering from strain was appointed record keeper and continued zoological work. The scientific work continued through the winter and it wasn't until October 1912 that a team led by Atkinson and including Cherry was able to head south to ascertain the fate of the South Pole team. On 12 November, the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers were found in their tent, along with their diaries and records, and rock samples they'd hauled back from the mountains of the interior. Cherry was deeply affected, particularly by the death of Wilson and Bowers, with whom he'd made the journey to Cape Crozier.
Cherry developed
clinical depression as well as
irritable bowel syndromeshortly after returning from Antarctica. Although his psychological condition was never cured, the explorer was able self-treat himself to some extent by writing down his experiences, although he spent many years bed-ridden due to his afflictions. He many times revisited the question of what might have been done differently to save the South Pole team - most notably in his 1922 book
The Worst Journey in the World. The book remains a classic, having been acclaimed as the greatest true adventure story ever written. It was published as
Penguin Books' 100'th publication.
The three intact penguin eggs that Wilson, Bowers and Cherry brought back from Cape Crozier are now in the collection of the
Natural History Museum, London.
The site of Cherry-Garrard's igloo
According to the epilogue to the
BBC Four drama-documentary based on
The Worst Journey in the World(External Link
), the site of the igloo created by Cherry and his two companions near the penguin breeding ground has now been located. Images shown during the programme reveal the presence of original equipment left by the expedition.
The igloo on Cape Crozier was discovered by the
Fuchs-
Hillary Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1957-58. Only eighteen inches to two feet of the stone walls remained standing. Relics were removed and placed in museums in New Zealand. (See Penguin edition of 'The Worst Journey in the World' 1970 p.21)
Writings
In
1922, encouraged by his friend and neighbour
G. Bernard Shaw, Chery-Garrard wrote
The Worst Journey in the World. Over 80 years later this book is still in print and is often cited as a classic of
travel literature. Cherry also published an obituary of the expedition photographer
Herbert Ponting and an introduction to
Edward Wilson of the Antarctic: Naturalist and Friend, a book by
George Seaver on
"Bill" Wilson.
Cherry-Garrard also contributed an
essay in remembrance of
T. E. Lawrence in the first edition of a volume edited by Lawrence's brother
A. W. Lawrence T. E. Lawrence, by His Friends. (Subsequent abridged editions omit his article.) Cherry hypothesizes in this essay that Lawrence undertook extraordinary acts out of a sense of inferiority and cowardice and a need to prove himself. He suggests, too, that Lawrence's writings -- as well as Cherry's own -- were therapeutic and helped in dealing with the
nervous shock of the events they recount.
Biography
Cherry-Garrard's life is detailed in
Sara Wheeler's biography
Cherry.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Apsley Cherry-garrard'.
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