A complex and rather eccentric character, Orde-Lees
(also referred to as "Lees" in various publications about the
expedition) was a captain in the Royal Marines at the time of
joining the Endurance, he was responsible for the motor-sledges
including some of his own design, that
it was hoped would have helped carry Shackleton and his team across
the continent.
Orde-Lees fulfilled the role of a Royal Navy man
whom Shackleton thought it wise to take along with the expedition to
gain political and military support he felt was needed. It was only
after approaching Winston Churchill that gained permission for Orde-Lees
to be released from his Navy Duty (bearing in mind that the
expedition was leaving England on the eve of the First World War).
He was a skier (at a time when this was very rare) and a physical
fitness expert.
A former public school boy, Orde-Lees was
generally disliked by the other expeditioners, though was an
effective and thorough store-keeper. He had a rather surly manner
and was fundamentally somewhat lazy, with no inclination to hide the
fact, simply avoiding pulling his weight if he was able to do so. In
such close conditions with other men, he was frequently ridiculed.
The men would take delight in antagonizing him if possible, when
Shackleton insisted on extra rations for instance and so over-rode
storekeeper Orde-Lees meagre distribution of foodstuffs.
He had taken a bicycle with him on the Endurance
and would often go out onto the pack ice and ride it performing
"tricks" around the randomly chaotic hummocks. On one of these
occasions near to midwinter, he became lost and had be rescued by a
search party, he was ordered not to leave the ship alone again.
While in the lifeboat, the Dudley Docker, on the
journey to Elephant Island, a gale blew up, Orde-Lees was
malingering and not taking as much of a turn at the rowing with the
other men when Worsley, who was in charge of the boat ordered -
yelled - at him to join in as their survival may have depended on
it. Despite this and the fact that the rest of the men in the boat
joined in behind Worsley to get Orde-lees to row, he still refused and crept onto the
sleeping bags to rest (admittedly, he was in a poor physical state
due to the privations of the journey, though no more so than many
others and far less so than some who nonetheless pulled their
weight). He very rapidly began to bail the boat out though as it
began to be swamped and disaster became an immediate possibility.
Thomas Orde-Lees was born at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen)
in Germany or Prussia, as it was then called during a holiday his
parents were taking. His father also called Thomas, was known as
something of an eccentric character, he was a Barrister at Law
(though not in practice) and Chief Constable of Northampton. Life
was comfortable and the family had a Butler, Cook, Nurse and
Housemaid.
The young Orde-Lees was given an education at
Marlborough College, The Royal Naval School (Gosport) and later at
Sandhurst Military Academy, he gained a commission in the Royal
Marines becoming a Lieutenant Colonel. He was posted to China at the
time of the infamous "Boxer Rebellion".
In 1910 Orde-Lees applied to join Scott's Terra
Nova expedition, but was turned down.
On return to England after the expedition, he
served in the Balloon Service and saw action on the Western front.
With Shackleton's help, he joined the Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C.)
and was a pioneering figure in parachute jumping. On one occasion,
he jumped off the top of Tower Bridge into the River Thames, only
about 160 or so feet below to convince the British Military of the
usefulness of the parachute. Although this was just a stunt, it
seemed to do the trick and the R.F.C. formed a parachute division
with Orde-Lees in command.
As a result of his parachuting, Orde-Lees went to Japan as a member
of the British Naval Air Mission where he taught the techniques to
the Japanese Air Force. Staying in Japan, he obtained a job as Tokyo
correspondent with the London Times Newspaper a post he held for 3
years. This led to an appointment as an assistant at the British
Embassy in Tokyo. His first wife had died, leaving a daughter and he
later married a local Japanese woman.
He taught English at the Peers School of Japan and
for nearly 20 years also read the English news on Japanese Radio
right up until 1941 when Japan joined World War II at which point he
and his family were reluctantly evacuated to New Zealand. The family
had become quite wealthy living in a sumptuous Tokyo house by this
time with two servants, all of which had to be left behind.
Upon arrival in New Zealand, the family settled in
Wellington and Orde-Lees accepted the rather lowly position of
Office Assistant with the New Zealand Correspondence School, in
effect nothing more than an office boy. Suggestions were made that
he was actually employed as a spy by the British Government, in all
events, he became well known around Wellington. He wrote a regular
travel column for children in The Southern Cross Newspaper. Shortly
before his death in 1958 he was involved in the organisation of the
1955/58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
There is some dispute as to Orde-Lees actual age
when he died in 1958, the Karori cemetery in Wellington show in
their records that he was named Thomas Orde Hans Lees, Order of the
British Empire Air Force Cross and died aged 79. Other sources show
him as Thomas Hans Orde Lees and give an age at death of 81.
He died an ignominious death of senility in a mental hospital, and
lies in a neat, well attended plot in the servicemen's section of
the cemetery, just a hundred or so yards from the last resting place
of one Chippy (Henry) McNish.
