Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton, Baron
Shackleton, KG, AC, OBE, PC, FRS, FRGS (15
July 1911 – 22 September 1994), was a British geographer, Royal Air Force officer and Labour Party politician. Born in Wandsworth, London, Shackleton was the younger son of Emily Mary and Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer. The young Edward
Shackleton was educated at Radley College, a boarding independent school for
boys near the village of Radley in Oxfordshire, followed by Magdalen College at
the University of Oxford.
Shackleton
arranged the 1932 Oxford University Exploration
Club expedition to Sarawak in Borneo organised by Tom Harrisson. During this trip he was the first to attain the
peak of Mount Mulu. In 1934
Shackleton organised the Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition and chose Gordon Noel Humphreys to
lead it. Shackleton accompanied the party as the assistant surveyor to
Humphreys. The expedition was eventually responsible for naming Mount Oxford (after
the University of Oxford) and
the British Empire Range. On
leaving university, he worked as a Talks Producer for the BBC in Northern Ireland – an experience that turned him away
from the Conservative Party towards Labour. After wartime service in the RAF,
Shackleton was appointed an Officer of
the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1945.
He
stood unsuccessfully for Labour at Epsom in
the 1945 general
election and in the 1945 Bournemouth
by-election. In 1946, Shackleton was elected as Labour Member of
Parliament for Preston in
a by-election. In 1949 Attlee appointed him PPS to Minister of Supply, George Strauss A boundary change divided Preston into two
seats, and he was elected MP for Preston
South on a much-reduced majority. The following year he was
promoted to be PPS to Lord President of the
Council and Foreign Secretary, Herbert Morrison, one of the heavyweight political figures in
the post-war government. He was re-elected in 1951. In 1955, he was defeated
and so Hugh Gaitskell recommended Shackleton to the Prime Minister. He was
created a life peer by letters patent as Baron Shackleton, of Burley in the County of Hampshire on
11 August 1958. Lord Shackleton delivered his
maiden speech on 11 November in a debate on Wages Councils, a bill he
thoroughly approved and welcomed to increase understanding between unions and
management. In Harold Wilson's
government, he served as Minister of Defence for
the RAF 1964–67. He was
sworn of the Privy Council in 1966, and made Deputy Leader of the House of
Lords a year later. As Minister without Portfolio 1967–1968 and Paymaster General 1968 he had a seat on the cabinet.
During the Aden Emergency he was sent on a Special Mission as
British Resident to help with the withdrawal. Typically promoted by Wilson in
an April, after the budget, he was made Leader of the House of Lords from 1968–70, and subsequently sat as
Opposition Leader in the House of Lords. He was used again on the Wilsonian reforms
proposed for the Lords, liaising between committees and sub-committees,
designed to reduce the Lords delaying powers from two years to just six months,
but the Prime Minister dropped the bill in April 1969 to "concentrate on
priorities." Sitting on the committee for Civil Service Reform he
successfully widened access to entry for scientists.
From
1971, Shackleton was President of the Royal Geographical Society.
Lord Shackleton was appointed a Knight
Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1974. From 1976 until 1992 he was
Chairman of the joint-Political Honours and Scrutiny Committee. Lord
Shackleton's report, commissioned by James Callaghan described the economic
future of the Falkland Islands, the value of the being British to the
islanders, and how their lot could be improved. It included the invaluable role
eventually played by HMS Endurance. Between 1988-89 he chaired the
Lords Science and Technology Committee, which culminated in 1989 when he was
elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society under Statute 12 (effectively an honorary member). He
also served as Chairman of the East European Trade Council
In
1990 Shackleton was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC),
Australia's highest civilian honour, "for service to Australian/British
relations, particularly through the Britain–Australia Society.
Lord
Shackleton was Pro-Chancellor of the University of Southampton,
in which role he was deeply interested in the development of geography at Southampton. A portrait photograph of
Lord Shackleton was unveiled by his daughter the Hon. Alexandra Shackleton in
December 1997 in the university's Shackleton Building, which houses the
Departments of Geography and Psychology.[ In 1994 he became the
Life President of the newly founded James Caird Society, named after the boat
in which his explorer father and crew escaped Antarctica (itself, in turn,
named for James Key Caird [1837–1916], jute baron
and philanthropist). He acted also as patron of the British Schools Exploring
Society (B.S.E.S.) from 1962 until his death in the New Forest aged 83.