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Endurance Obituaries |
 Endurance Obituaries |
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W. PERCE BLACKBOROW
( 08/04/1894 – 08/01/1949 )
BORN:PILLGWENTLY. NEWPORT. WALES
DIED:MAESGLAS GROVE. NEWPORT. WALES
NICKNAME : BLACKIE
DUTY : STEWARD
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PHOTO TAKEN NOT LONG AFTER HIS ARRIVAL HOME FROM HOSPITAL IN PUNTA ARENAS.
Awarded Bronze Polar Medal
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Perce Blackborow is famed for being probably the only person ever to stowaway on an Antarctic expedition.
He was only 19 years of age when he met up with an American sailor, William Bakewell, and they both found themselves in Buenos Aires without a ship.
Bakewell was accepted as a seaman on the Endurance by Shackleton , but Perce was refused due to his young age and lack of seamanship.
At the time he was discovered on board the Endurance the ship was already three days sailing out of South Georgia. Shackleton really had no option but to offer him a position as steward.
“If anyone has to be eaten, then you will be the first!” said Shackleton.
Perce did not let Shackleton down and he was awarded the honour of being the first person ever to set foot on Elephant Island. Due to severe frostbite to his toes he actually crawled ashore rather than walked.
After the expedition, Perce spent three months hospitalised in Punta Arenas, Chile, recovering from the frostbite damage sustained to his left foot, which had resulted in the surgeons Macklin and McIllroy having to amputate his toes on Elephant Island on 15th June 1916.
Perce it seems was a modest man, for upon returning home to Wales he avoided the welcoming home party waiting for him at the local railway station by going across the tracks and out the other side of the station.
He soon volunteered to join The Royal Navy but was turned down because of the lack of digits on his left foot.
He was however, accepted into The Merchant Navy and served until 1919 and went on to become a dock boatman in the Alexandra Docks, Newport.and also fished to help to support his family.
He married a local girl, Kate Kearns and they settled in Maesglas, Newport. Their marriage produced six children .Jack, Jim, Peggy, Ken, Joan and Phillip. Unfortunately Phillip died in infancy and Jack died aged just 9 years.
Perce’s grandson John Blackborow writes :
“ My Grandfather was a very likeable man, he was a pillar of strength to his family and had a great presence. Shackleton and the expedition moulded his character and Shackleton stressed to him the need for education and knowledge and encouraged him to use the ship’s library. In later years my Grandfather owned a number of encyclopaedias and encouraged his children likewise.”
Perce rarely spoke about his Antarctic adventures, and declined offers to go on the radio. He was however, eventually persuaded by his good friend and headmaster, Mr. Latimer Jones to give a lecture prior to the showing of the film “The Voyage of the Quest”. at the YMCA Boys Club. Newport.
I have a copy of Perce’s handwritten lecture which ends………….
”My impression of Sir Ernest Shackleton ? He was a tall, broad-shouldered man, possessed of a very generous nature, with which he combined extra-ordinary powers of endurance and hardihood. He was optimistic even when things looked blackest, this inspired those who served under him”.
“These attributes and what he had accomplished made him I think, one of the greatest explorers in history”.
Perce , throughout the years , kept in touch with his long time shipmates Walter How and William Bakewell . In 1963 . long after Perce’s death . Bakewell came over from Canada for a reunion and visited Wales specifically to meet members of the Blackborow family. John Blackborow comments “He was a real character”.
Perce died in 1949. aged 54 , of Chronic Bronchitis and Heart disease. He is buried at St. Woolas Cemetery. Newport. South Wales. His family have plans for his Polar Medal to be placed with The Scott Polar Research Society in the very near future.
With thanks to John Blackborow (Grandson of Perce Blackborow)
And Joan Randle ( Daughter of Perce Blackborow)
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