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Endurance Obituaries |
 Endurance Obituaries |
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THOMAS FRANK. MCLEOD
(29/08/1869 – 16/12/1960)
BORN : STORNOWAY. ISLE OF LEWIS. SCOTLAND
DIED : KINGSTON.ONTARIO. CANADA
NICKNAME : STORNOWAY
DUTY : ABLE SEAMAN
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Picture taken October 1916. Buenos Aires.
McLeod is wearing the Polar Medal he was awarded from
Scott’s 1910 expedition.
Awarded Bronze Polar Medal
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Thomas McLeod or MacLeod was born at Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. His father John was a draper on the island and Thomas was the second eldest of four sons born to John McLeod and his wife Mary. His other brothers were William (born 1868), Colin (born 1871) and John (born 1876).
At around the age of 14 Thomas joined the British Merchant Navy and went on to become one of the small band of accomplished Antarctic seamen having served on Scott’s 1910 Terra Nova expedition, and Shackleton’s 1914 Endurance and 1921 Quest expeditions. McLeod was one of the few able seamen to hold two Polar Medals.
Tom was amongst the 22 men left stranded on Elephant Island, and in his own words: “ I weighed around 200 lbs when the Endurance sank, and went down to around 100 lbs before being rescued from Elephant Island.”
It is believed that the building of the cairn on South Georgia in memory of Shackleton was McLeod’s idea and was mainly constructed by him. He is also credited as being the one who retrieved Shackleton’s discarded bible from the flow, and later gave it to the Chilean family whom he stayed with in Punta Arenas. The bible was eventually presented to the Royal Geographical Society.
Very little is known in Scotland about McLeod. He never married, and in 1923 emigrated to Canada where for the first two years he earned a living fishing off Bell’s Island. For ten years he held the job of a school caretaker and later a night watchman. He had settled in the Kingston. Ontario, district and in 1947 he moved to Rideaucrest and died in a retirement home, the House of Providence. Montreal Street, Kingston on 16th December 1960.
In almost every publication about the expedition one finds that Greenstreet is stated as being the oldest survivor. This is not so. Greenstreet was the last to die. Bakewell , even in late 1916 wrote :
“Some of my shipmates were down to see me off. What I always thought impossible happened. Old McLeod, one of the most hard-boiled sailors I ever ran across, started to blubber like a baby when I bade him goodbye.”
It is rather sad to think that Bakewell and Mcleod lived out the twilight years of their lives not all that far apart from each other, but never knew it.
McLeod’s obituary, which appeared in the Kingston-Whig Standard Newspaper in December 1960 states that, he died in his 87th year. However I now know this to be incorrect. Having checked his Birth Record and Death Certificate (which we must assume to be correct) and cemetery records, he was in fact 91 years old when he died. He therefore holds the distinction of being the longest-lived of the Endurance party.
The local Canadian press once asked Tom, why he had never married. He replied:
“ When you go to the store to buy a bird, you must have enough money to buy a cage for it. Well I never had enough money to buy a house in which to put a wife”.
Sometime before he died he was asked did he want his polar medals returning to Scotland, He declined saying “ Scotland did nothing for me, why should I?"
What about Lewis then? . “They did even less!" He asked that the medals be sent to the Royal Geographical Society in London. McLeod died intestate (without having made a will). He must have had a change of mind as he gave his medals to a close friend.
Whatever he may have said and thought, McLeod was without doubt a very skilled and capable Scottish seaman. Shackleton described him as “ a typical old deep-sea salt and growler”.
Thomas is buried in Cataraqui Cemetery. Kingston.Canada. City plot,
Row 4-4 N.
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Note: His year of Birth should read 1869
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McLeod’s grave, Cataraqui Cemetery. Kingston. Ontario. Canada.
Note the misspelling of Shackleton’s surname, also the wrong year for the Quest expedition
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Picture , thought to be of McLeod on Scott’s 1910 “Terra Nova.” expedition.
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McLeod on board the Endurance 1914 on its way from England to Buenos Aires.
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McLeod taken aged 81 in 1950 at the Rideaucrest Retirement Home.
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| With thanks to Richard
Langhorne and colleagues ( Stornoway Museum) David
Fowler (Senior Librarian. Western Isles Libraries)
Special thanks to Margaret Macinnes for her research
into the life of Thomas McLeod
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