THOMAS HANS ORDE LEES
(23/05/1877 – 01/12/1958 )
BORN : AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. GERMANY
DIED : WELLINGTON. NEW ZEALAND
NICKNAME : THE COLONEL
DUTY : MOTOR EXPERT / STORES KEEPER
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Awarded Silver Polar Medal
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Thomas, like McNish, was one of the great characters of the expedition. Eccentric in many ways, he was disliked by most of the fo’c’s’le crew for his surly manner. Most of the Officers and Scientists would make fun of him and ridicule him for his antics. Shackleton probably never quite got the measure of him.
He was never the less a very talented man. He was the tallest and possibly fittest member of the party and was accomplished in gymnastics, climbing, skiing, cycling and motoring and had experimented with motorised sledges.
(He actually took his bicycle along on the expedition!)
Shackleton thought it wise to take along a Royal Navy man in order to gain the political and military support he felt was needed to justify his expedition. Only after approaching Winston Churchill did he manage to gain permission for Orde Lees to be released from his Navy Duty.
Thomas was actually born in Aix-la-Chapelle.Germany, or Prussia, as it was then known, during the time his parents were holidaying there. This no doubt accounts for him being given the very Germanic middle names of Hans and Orde.
His father was a none-practicing Barrister at Law and Chief Constable of Northampton, and was also known as being something of an eccentric character himself. They lived at the Chief Constable's House, St.Giles, Northampton. All led a very comfortable life, having a Butler, Cook, Nurse and Housemaid to look after them.
The 1881 census of England shows Thomas as Thomas O.H. Lees, the exact same name as his father who was then aged 36 and was born in Ireland. Whether they shared the same middle names of Orde and Hans is uncertain.
Thomas Senior ensured that Thomas received a first class education. He attended Marlborough College, The Royal Naval School (Gosport) and also Sandhurst Military Academy. Eventually he gained a commission in the Royal Marines and became a Lieutenant Colonel.
In 1900 he was posted to China and took part in the infamous “Boxer Rebellion”. He almost lost his life shortly after the rebellion was put down when his ship hit uncharted rocks and sank en-route whilst returning back from Korea where he had attended the investiture of the Emperor. In 1910 he applied to join Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, but was turned down.
During the First World War he served in the Balloon Service and saw action on the Western front. With the help of Shackleton, he joined the Royal Flying Corps and became something of a pioneer at parachute jumping.
In order to convince the British Military of the usefulness of the parachute he risked his life by somewhat foolishly demonstrating its values by jumping off the top of Tower Bridge into the River Thames, a mere 160 or so feet below. One wonders if it was the water rather than the parachute, which provided him with a safe landing.
It was really a stunt, and was his way of trying to prove to the Military of the usefulness of the parachute. It seemed to work, as it persuaded the R.F.C. to form a parachute division with Thomas in command.
In 1919 it is recorded that Orde Lees was involved in training women to parachute jump on flights sponsored by The Daily Mail Newspaper (source: Memoirs of Sholto Douglas. Handley Page’s chief test pilot.)
His involvement with the newspaper did not go down well with the powers that be, and he was given the choice of facing a Court Marshall or resigning. He chose the latter.
His love of parachuting took him to Japan where as a member of the British Naval Air Mission he taught parachuting to the Japanese Air Force.
In the early 1920’s he accepted a job with the London Times Newspaper as it’s Tokyo correspondent, a post he held for 3 years. Shortly after this he was appointed as an assistant at the British Embassy in Tokyo. His first wife Rene had died, leaving a daughter also named Rene who shared the same birthday as her mother. He married a local Japanese woman named Hisako Hoya and they had a daughter named Zoe.
They lived for many years in Japan and he became teacher of English at the Peers School of Japan, For almost 20 years he read the English news on Japanese Radio, a post which he held right up until 1941 when Japan joined World War II. He and his family were reluctantly evacuated to New Zealand. Thomas had become quite wealthy by this time, and lived in a sumptuous house in Tokyo with two servants, all of which had to be left behind.
They settled in Wellington, and Thomas unable to find suitable work surprisingly accepted the rather menial position of Office Assistant with the New Zealand Correspondence School. This post was in effect nothing more than an office boy’s job. It has been suggested in some contemporary publications that during this time he was actually employed as a spy by the British Government. He became well known around Wellington and was often seen jogging around the streets in his sandshoes.
Thomas is known to have written 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.
Thomas Orde Hans Lees was a one-off. He was intelligent, eccentric, caring and courageous (quite the opposite of what one reads in some publications). Like McNish, there is some dispute as to how old he was when he died. 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. Died aged 79. Various publications show his name as Thomas Hans Orde Lees. Other sources including newspaper articles and obituaries give his age as being 81.
What is certain is that he died in a mental hospital of senility, and did not receive as grand a funeral as McNish. Thomas lies buried 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 McNish!
Orde-Lees ( seated second from right ) wearing his medals which include China 1900 Medal, British War Medal, Victory Medal and the Polar Medal
ORDE LEES GRAVESTONE. KARORI CEMETERY.WELLINGTON. NEW ZEALAND.
With thanks to Wellington City Council - New Zealand.
Glenn Stein.
Andrew Leachman. Master of the R.V. “ Tangaroa”.
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Endurance Dogs
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