Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton, Baron Shackleton (15 July 1911 – 22 September 1994) was a British geographer, Royal Air Force officer and Labour Party politician.
Contents
Early life and career
Born in Wandsworth, London, Shackleton was the younger son of Emily Mary and Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer. Edward Shackleton was educated at Radley College, an independent boarding school for boys in Oxfordshire, followed by Magdalen College, Oxford.
Shackleton arranged the 1932 Oxford University Exploration Club expedition to Sarawak in Borneo organised by Tom Harrisson. During this trip, he made the first ascent 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 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 the university, he worked as a Talks Producer for the BBC in Northern Ireland – an experience that turned him away from the Conservatives towards Labour.
Royal Air Force service
Shackleton served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. On 29 July 1940, he was commissioned into the Administrative and Special Duties Branch, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, as a pilot officer on probation. On 1 March 1941, he was promoted and granted the war substantive rank of flying officer. Following the probationary period, his commission was confirmed on 29 July 1941. He was promoted to flight lieutenant (temporary) on 1 September 1942, and made a war substantive flight lieutenant on 15 February 1944. He was an acting squadron leader by June 1944, and an acting wing commander by June 1945.
In 1944, Shackleton was mentioned in despatches. In the 1945 King's Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Shackleton relinquished his commission on 15 July 1956 and was granted permission to retain the rank of wing commander.
Political life
Shackleton stood unsuccessfully for Labour at Epsom in the 1945 general election and in the 1945 Bournemouth by-election. In 1946, he was elected for Labour as Member of Parliament for Preston in a by-election. In 1949 he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of Supply, George Strauss.
A boundary change divided Preston into two seats, and in 1950 Shackleton was elected as MP for Preston South on a much-reduced majority. In 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.
At the 1955 election, he was defeated. Hugh Gaitskell recommended Shackleton to the Prime Minister, and on 11 August 1958 he was created a life peer by letters patent as Baron Shackleton, of Burley in the County of Southampton. Shackleton delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 11 November 1958, in a debate on a Wages Councils bill, one he thoroughly approved of and welcomed, to increase understanding between unions and management.
In Harold Wilson's government, he served as Minister of Defence for the RAF from 1964 to 1967. 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 in 1967–1968 and Paymaster General in 1968, he had a seat in the Cabinet. During the Aden Emergency he was sent on a Special Mission as British Resident to help with the British withdrawal.
In April 1968, after the budget, Wilson made Shackleton Leader of the House of Lords, succeeding the Earl of Longford.
Shackleton was active in Wilson's proposals for House of Lords reform, designed to reduce the delaying powers of the Lords from two years to just six months, and he liaised between committees and sub-committees, but in April 1969 Wilson dropped the bill to "concentrate on priorities". Sitting on the committee for Civil Service Reform, Shackleton successfully widened access to entry for scientists.
Shackleton remained Leader of the House of Lords until a Conservative government was elected in 1970 and thereafter was Opposition Leader in the Lords.
Personal life
In 1938 Shackleton married Betty Homan, and they had two children, Alexandra (born 1940) and Charles (1942–1979).
Arms
Lord Shackleton's Garter banner, which hung in St. George's Chapel in Windsor during his lifetime, is now on display in Christ Church Cathedral, Falkland Islands.