Henry Worsley – Wikipedia

Alastair Edward Henry Worsley (London, 4 October 1960 – Punta Arenas, 24 January 2016) was a British soldier and explorer.

In 2009 he took part in an expedition he found and followed the traces of the famous British Nimrod Antarctic expedition, led by Ernest Henry Shackleton in 1907.
He died in January 2016 trying to complete the first lonely Antarctic crossing.

Henry Worsley was born in London on October 4, 1960, the only son of General Richard Worsley and his first wife Sarah Anne Mitchell. ^{[2] [3]} It was a distant relative of Frank Worsley, the captain of the endurance ship that between 1914 and 1917 participated in the endurance expedition led by Ernest Henry Shackleton. ^[4] He served as a soldier in British Army for 36 years, first inside the body of the Royal Green Jackets and, later, of The Rifs. ^[5] Promoted Lieutenant Colonel commanded the second battalion of the Royal Green Jackets ^[3] During the British military operation in Afghanistan he known as “Operation Veritas”, part of the general “Enduring Freedom operation”. ^[6] He also served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Kosovo. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1993 for the mission carried out in Northern Ireland and in 2002 he received the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service for the mission held in Yugoslavia in 2001. He dismissed from the army in October 2015 . ^[5]

In 2008 he led an shipping in Antarctica to open a new track through the Transantartic Mountains until he reached 157 kilometers from the South Pole. The shipment commemorated the centenary of the Nimrod expedition led by Shackleton.
He returned to Antarctica in 2011 at the helm of a team of six explorers committed to seeking the traces of the expedition made by Roald Amundsen in 1912, during the year of his centenary. Completing this expedition he became the first man to successfully make the three tracks open in Antarctica by Shackleton, Amundsen, and Robert Falcon Scott. ^[5]

Last shipping [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

At the end of 2015 Henry Worsley left for a last expedition with the intention of performing a solo crossing, following the spirit of his hero, Ernest Shackleton and raising funds for the Endeavour Fund association, to help the veterans and to the wounded of the British armed forces. ^[7] The expedition received the patronage of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. ^[8] his personal friend ^[9] .
The crossing was completed on foot without the help of motor vehicles or a kite sail to help him drive his 150 kg sled, a sail that was instead used by Børge Ousland in his 1997 crossing. ^[5] He started from the island Berkner on November 13, 2015 ^[ten] With the aim of completing the trip in 80 days. It traveled 1469 km in 69 days but, who arrived at the seventy -one day of travel and only 48 kilometers from the destination, he was forced to stop by an important illness and a severe dehydration. Radio help was requested, he was transported by helicopter to Punta Arenas in Chile where he was diagnosed with a bacterial peritonitis. He was operated on urgently but he died equally on January 24, 2016, at the age of 55. ^{[5] [11]}

Worsley lived in Fulham, a London neighborhood. He was married since February 20, 1993 with Joanna Stainton with whom he had two children ^[11]