 Leonard
Duncan Albert Hussey
 | Meteorologist
Endurance 1914-17
(also referred to as "banjo player" in the credits to the film "South"!) |
| Meteorologist, assistant surgeon
Quest-
Ernest Shackleton 1921/1922 |
The Endurance Expedition
Like countless other young men, Hussey wrote to Shackleton
to request a position on what would become the Endurance expedition,
at the time of his application, he had just returned from an expedition
to the Sudan where he had been employed as an anthropologist. Hussey
was lucky enough to be called for interview with Shackleton, in Hussey's
own words, it went like this:
"He called for me, looked me up
and down, walked up and down when he was talking to me, didn't seem
to take any notice. Finally he said, "Yes, I like you, I'll take
you." He told me afterwards he took me because he thought I looked
funny!"
Shackleton's judge of character was to prove uncanny
as Hussey became an invaluable addition to the crew in particular helping
to raise the spirits and moral of the other men with his ready wit and
banjo playing during the long days lost in the ice floes and while waiting
for rescue on Elephant Island.
He was not at all expert at playing the banjo, though
his instrument had been with him on previous adventures, having even
been played to an audience of cannibals in Africa. Hussey had been prepared
to leave the banjo behind when the men were deciding what to take across
the ice with them and what to leave behind:
"We must have that banjo if we
lose all our food, it's vital mental medicine".
Shackleton
The banjo was brought forth to celebrate the capture
of food in the form of a seal or penguin and during the time on Elephant
Island, a concert was held each Saturday night in the soot and tobacco
darkened confines of the "Snuggery." Favourite songs were Swannee River,
Massa's in the Cold Ground, Little Brown Jug and John Peel. There were
also many songs written by the men themselves to existing tunes usually
about and ridiculing each other.
The Rookery, the scientific
laboratory with Hussey (left) examining the
Dimes anemometer and James (right) removing
rime from the dip-circle, the electrograph is on the right.
Biography
Leonard Hussey was born in Leytonstone, London, England,
one of nine children, his father was in the printing industry.
He enrolled at the University of London in 1909 gaining
degrees in psychology, meteorology and anthropology from the University
of London at Kings College.
On return to England, like many of the other expedition
members, Hussey became a part of the War effort being commissioned as
a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery and rising to the rank
of Captain by the end of the war. He saw much battle action in France,
including St. Quentin and Dixmunde and on the North Russia front where
he served once again with Ernest Shackleton on operation Syren.
He remained in contact with Shackleton and completed
the final editing of Shackleton's book of the 1914-17 Endurance expedition
"South" - without payment. In 1921, Shackleton invited Hussey to join
him on his last expedition to Antarctica aboard the Quest as
meteorologist and assistant surgeon as Hussey had qualified in medicine
since his return from the Endurance expedition.
Shackleton had been ill with suspected heart disease
(suspected because he would not allow himself to be examined by a doctor)
for some time. He had put on weight and was smoking and drinking too
much, despite surviving a heart attack in Rio de Janeiro he pressed
on, but died of another heart attack on South Georgia.
Hussey accepted the duty of escorting Shackleton's
body back to England, but by the time he reached Montevideo (Uruguay)
a telegraph was received from Shackleton's widow requesting that her
husband be laid to rest on South Georgia. Hussey returned with the body
and made the necessary arrangements. On March 5th 1922 Shackleton's
body was laid to rest at the Norwegian cemetery alongside the whalers.
After the end of WW1, Hussey's career had turned towards
medicine, by 1923 he was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and
a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. He was in general medical
practice in London up until 1940.
During WW2, he joined the Royal Air Force as a medical
officer being posted to Iceland with the rank of Squadron Leader and
then stationed at RAF Benson in London. He had a distinguished war record
being twice mentioned in despatches. (01/01/1945 and 14/05/1945) and
receiving the Military OBE.
Hussey published his own book "South with Endurance"
in 1949, in the same year he served as ship's surgeon on the S.S.Clan
Macauley which sailed from England to South Africa and Australia.
He continued to practise as a G.P. in Hertfordshire
until around 1957 the same year that he became president of the Antarctic
Club. Having been on so famous an expedition, Hussey gave many lectures
about his Antarctic adventures until ill health in retirement prevented
him from continuing. He gave his notes and lantern slides to a friend,
Ralph Gullet, a local Scout Leader. His famous banjo was donated to
the British Maritime Museum in 1959.
He was married to Grace Muriel Hellstrom for many
years - they had no children. Leonard died in 1964 aged 72. Grace died
in 1980.
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Just reading your notes
on Dr Hussey in Cool Antarctica and notice that you
mention that he gave his lantern and notes to Ralph
Gullet. I can add that he wrote a lovely letter to Ralph
saying how difficult it was to part with them but that
"the lads would be pleased to know that their story
continued to be told". The follow up to this is that I
took over presenting Dr Hussey's lecture on Ralph's
behalf from 1990 and then just before he died he wrote a
similar letter to me asking for me to continue to take
the story forward. I have since used the artefacts,
notes and lecture over the years ( about 200
presentations) to raise monies for a wide variety of
charities ranging from the Shackleton Library at Scott
Polar, to sponsoring kids on the London Sailing Project
to providing gers for homeless children in Mongolia.
Regards, Geoff Selley
FRGS |
Dr. Hussey's medals. Includes
the Board of Trade's Permission to Wear the WWI Mercantile Marine War
Medal
(green, white and red ribbon).
These are held in a private collection
in North America. Picture courtesy
Glenn M. Stein FRGS
References to Leonard Hussey in
Shackleton's book "South!"
buy USA
buy UK
| The ship was blocked at one point by
a wedge-shaped piece of floe, but we put the ice-anchor
through it, towed it astern, and proceeded through the gap.
Steering under these conditions required muscle as well
as nerve. There was a clatter aft during the afternoon,
and Hussey, who was
at the wheel, explained that "The wheel spun round and threw
me over the top of it!" |
|
| During the afternoon three adelie penguins
approached the ship across the floe while
Hussey was discoursing
sweet music on the banjo. The solemn-looking little birds
appeared to appreciate "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," but
they fled in horror when Hussey
treated them to a little of the music that comes from Scotland.
The shouts of laughter from the ship added to their dismay,
and they made off as fast as their short legs would carry
them. |
|
| Later there was a really splendid dinner,
consisting of turtle soup, whitebait, jugged hare, Christmas
pudding, mince-pies, dates, figs and crystallized fruits,
with rum and stout as drinks. In the evening everybody joined
in a "sing-song." Hussey
had made a one-stringed violin, on which, in the words of
Worsley, he "discoursed quite painlessly." The wind was
increasing to a moderate south-easterly gale and no advance
could be made, so we were able to settle down to the enjoyments
of the evening. |
|
| The quarters in the 'tween decks were
completed by the 10th, and the men took possession of the
cubicles that had been built. The largest cubicle contained
Macklin, McIlroy, Hurley, and Hussey
and it was named "The Billabong." |
|
| As the drift was mostly affected by the
winds, the weather was closely watched by all, and
Hussey, the meteorologist,
was called upon to make forecasts every four hours, and
some times more frequently than that. A meteorological screen,
containing thermometers and a barograph, had been erected
on a post frozen into the ice, and observations were taken
every four hours. |
|
| "About a mile from Patience Camp we had
a welcome surprise. Sir Ernest and
Hussey sledged out to meet
us with dixies of hot tea, well wrapped up to keep them
warm. |
|
| "Rickenson, who was still very weak and
ill, but very cheery, obtained a place in the boat directly
above the stove, and the sailors having lived under the
Stancomb Wills for a few days while she was upside down
on the beach, tacitly claimed it as their own, and flocked
up on to its thwarts as one man. There was one ‘upstair'
billet left in this boat, which Wild offered to
Hussey and Lees simultaneously,
saying that the first man that got his bag up could have
the billet. Whilst Lees was calculating the pros and cons
Hussey got his bag,
and had it up just as Lees had determined that the pros
had it. There were now four men up on the thwarts of the
Dudley Docker, and the five sailors and
Hussey on those of the
Stancomb Wills, the remainder disposing themselves on the
floor." |
|
| Heavy bales of sennegrass, and boxes
of cooking-gear, were lifted bodily in the air and carried
away out of sight. Once the wind carried off the floor-cloth
of a tent which six men were holding on to and shaking the
snow off. These gusts often came with alarming suddenness;
and without any warning. Hussey
was outside in the blizzard digging up the day's meat, which
had frozen to the ground, when a gust caught him and drove
him down the spit towards the sea. Fortunately, when he
reached the softer sand and shingle below high-water mark,
he managed to stick his pick into the ground and hold on
with both hands till the squall had passed. |
|
| After supper they had a concert, accompanied
by Hussey on his "indispensable
banjo." This banjo was the last thing to be saved off the
ship before she sank, and I took it with us as a mental
tonic. It was carried all the way through with us, and landed
on Elephant Island practically unharmed, and did much to
keep the men cheerful. Nearly every Saturday night such
a concert was held, when each one sang a song about some
other member of the party. If that other one objected to
some of the remarks, a worse one was written for the next
week. |
|
| The demons of depression could find no
foothold when he was around; and, not content with merely
"telling," he was "doing" as much as, and very often more
than, the rest. He showed wonderful capabilities of leadership
and more than justified the absolute confidence that I placed
in him. Hussey, with
his cheeriness and his banjo, was another vital factor in
chasing away any tendency to downheartedness.
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Endurance
Personnel
Summary
Bakewell, William
Able Seaman
Blackborow, Percy
Steward (stowaway)
Cheetham, Alfred
Third Officer
Clark, Robert S.
Biologist
Crean, Thomas
Second
Officer
Green, Charles J.
Cook
Greenstreet, Lionel
First Officer
Holness, Ernest
Fireman
How, Walter E.
Able
Seaman
Hudson, Hubert T.
Navigator
Hurley, James F.
(Frank)
Official Photographer
Hussey, Leonard D. A.
Meteorologist
James, Reginald W.
Physicist
Kerr, A. J.
Second
Engineer
Macklin, Dr. Alexander
H.
Surgeon
Marston, George E.
Official Artist
McCarthy, Timothy
Able Seaman
McIlroy, Dr. James A.
Surgeon
McLeod, Thomas
Able
Seaman
McNish, Henry
Carpenter
Orde-Lees, Thomas
Motor Expert and Storekeeper
Rickinson, Lewis
First Engineer
Shackleton, Ernest
H.
Expedition Leader
Stephenson, William
Fireman
Vincent, John
Able
Seaman
Wild, Frank
Second in
Command
Wordie, James M.
Geologist
Worsley, Frank
Captain
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