In an exciting commemoration of the indomitable spirit of Sir Ernest Shackleton for generations to come, at the end of 2023 a collaborative initiative was set to establish a lasting tribute in one of the United Kingdom's most hallowed buildings. Shackleton was delighted to partner with the James Caird Society and Dulwich College to support the installation of a permanent memorial to Sir Ernest Shackleton within the historic confines of Westminster Abbey in London.

The illustrious Westminster Abbey, Britain’s ‘national church’ was founded in 970 AD and has been the site of 40 coronations of British Monarch since 1066. It contains tombs and memorials to Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton and many hundreds of icons from a thousand years of British history.

After a tremendous effort from a range of donations, the excess of £18,000 was raised to help fund the memorial of Sir Ernest Shackleton, will be unveiled at a private event on the 15th February 2024, the 150th anniversary of Sir Ernest’s birth.

The memorial’s artist, Will Davies, chose to use Carrara marble for the cartouche and Kilkenny marble for the globe, with the landmasses being of Connemara marble (to reflect Shackleton’s Irish roots), except the Antarctic continent being in white Carrara. The memorial stands at approximately one metre tall and about fifty centimetres across and the Abbey has conferred the extraordinary honour of a position in the South Cloister on the wall next to the memorial to the circumnavigators Sir Francis Drake, Captain James Cook and Sir Francis Chichester. There, generations to come may be reminded of, and inspired by, the character and achievements of this titan of exploration, leadership and courage.

You are welcome to pay your own personal visits to this permanent tribute to Sir Ernest Shackleton enshrined in Westminster Abbey's South Cloister.