About this event

  • Date and time Thu 15 Nov 2018 from 10:45am to 12:45pm
  • Location Royal Society of Medicine
  • Organised by Retired Fellows Society

Dr Isobel Williams has always admired Shackleton who led three expeditions to the Antarctic and was a crew member of a fourth. He is justly famous for escaping with all his men from the icy grip of the Weddell Sea during his momentous expedition of 1914-1916 and for his incredible 800 mile sail from Elephant Island to South Georgia. But he achieved more than this –in 1909 he got to within 100 miles of the South Pole, the first expedition to get so far on the Antarctic Plateau. He certainly lived up to his family motto “By Endurance We Conquer”. In this talk, Dr Williams will illustrate the highlights of his Antarctic experiences.

Key speakers

Dr Isobel Williams

Author and Retired Consultant Chest Physician

Speaker's biography

As a medical student at St George’s Hospital, London, Dr Isobel Williams became fascinated by paintings of Antarctica that were in the medical school. These were painted by Dr Edward Wilson–Wilson who had been a student at St George’s some seventy years previously and in 1910 he went South with Scott on the ‘Terra Nova’ Expedition, dying with Scott on the return journey from the South Pole. She wrote the biography of Dr Wilson and subsequently published the biographies of Chief Petty Office Edgar Evans and ‘William Speirs Bruce, A Forgotten Polar Hero’.

Dr Williams now makes regular presentations on Antarctic heroes and Antarctic subjects.

Agenda

View the programme

Registration, tea and coffee
Welcome and introduction
Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer, his life and times

Dr Isobel Williams, Author and Retired Consultant Chest Physician

Discussion
Close of meeting followed by lunch

For those who have pre-booked

Location

Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE, United Kingdom