Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (; 15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was a polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the
Antarctic, and one of the principal figures of the period known as the
Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in
County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton and his
Anglo-Irish family moved to
Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten. His first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain
Robert Falcon Scott's
Discovery Expedition 1901–04, from which he was sent home early on health grounds, after he and his companions
Scott and
Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S.