Alexander Hepburne Macklin
1889-1967
Surgeon, Endurance Expedition (1914 - 17)
Surgeon, stores and equipment, Quest Expedition (1921 - 22)
Macklin was born in India and spent his boyhood in the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall, where his father was in medical practice. After a short spell working as a deckhand in the Mediterranean, Macklin read medicine at Manchester University. Qualifying MBChB (1912), he applied for the Endurance expedition.
On the expedition, as well as a medical role, Macklin also drove one of the dog teams and cared for the expeditions dogs. Once Endurance was crushed in the ice, he and McIlroy, the other surgeon remained with the main party on Elephant Island for three months on Elephant Island rather than accompanying Shackleton to South Georgia. They had much to attend to. Rickinson had a heart condition, Hudson was having a nervous breakdown and suffered an infected boil. Blackborow had gangrene in his toes, several of which were amputated by McIllroy while Macklin administered chloroform. There were many other cases of including frostbite, dysentery, boils, and sores.
On return to England, Macklin joined the army as an officer in the Medical Corps, serving in France and Russia during the First World War. He served first with the Yorks later transferring as medical officer to the Tanks. Going to the Italian front with his battalion, he won the Military Cross for bravery in tending the wounded under fire.
Shackleton invited Macklin to join him again for the Quest expedition in 1922, which like many of the old Endurance crew, he was happy to do. As the ship's surgeon, on Shackleton's death, it fell to Macklin to carry out a postmortem, which established extensive coronary atheroma. Shackleton was buried on South Georgia.
Back home, Macklin moved to Scotland in 1926 and set up a practice in Dundee where he remained until 1947. In the Second World War, he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps, commanding a Field Ambulance in the 51st Highland Division before serving in East Africa.
At the age of 58, he married and moved to Aberdeen, becoming physician in charge of the student health service in the University, until retirement in 1960.
He died in 1967 aged 77.
Awards:
Polar Medal
Mount Mackdin in the Salvesen Range
OBE
Military Cross
Territorial Decoration
Order of St Stanislaw
Biography:
British Medical Journal 1993;307:1597 (Published 18 December 1993)
wikipedia