Henry Worsley: Soldier and adventurer who followed in the footsteps of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton

Henry Worsley was a soldier and polar explorer whose voyages to the Antarctic were underpinned by the desire to complete the expedition embarked upon by his hero, Ernest Shackleton, a century ago, to traverse the South Pole.

Worsley was born in London in 1960 to Sally and General Sir Richard Worsley, who later became Quartermaster-General to the Forces. He was educated at Stowe School, where he was captain of the cricket team. It was here that he first read of Shackleton's and Scott's expeditions from books in the school's library and had become fascinated by their adventures and pioneering spirit.

He was distantly related to Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's ship during his 1914 expedition which was crushed by pack ice and sank in 1915.

Worsley attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into 3rd Battalion, the Royal Green Jackets in 1980. In 1988 he was seconded to the SAS and had served tours in Northern Ireland (for which he was awarded an MBE), Bosnia (where he helped search for war criminals), Kosovo and Afghanistan. He had retired from the army in October 2015 after 36 years of service, having attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

His first expedition to the Antarctic had been mounted in 2008 to mark the centenary of Shackleton's “Nimrod” journey of 1908-09. Worsley and his small team journeyed through the Transantarctic Mountains to the South Pole. The expedition was a matter of unfinished family business, as the earlier expedition was force to end 97 miles short of the Pole. He and his two colleagues were related to members of that expedition: Henry Adams is a lawyer and great grandson of Jameson Boyd Adams, Shackleton's second in command, Will Gow, a City worker, Shackleton's great nephew.

Three years later, he and a team of six soldiers took part in the Scott-Amundsen Centenary Race, retracing Roald Amundsen's 1912 journey of 900 miles from the Bay of Whales up the Axel Heiberg Glacier to the South Pole. The Duke of Cambridge was patron of the race and had followed this journey and Worsley's subsequent adventure with interest.

For his third and most recent Antarctic voyage, which he dubbed the Endurance Expedition, named after Shackleton's ship, Worsley planned to retrace Shackleton's journey alone, aiming to cover 943 miles unaided, without motorised transport, dogs or any other outside help.

Interviewed on Radio 4's Today programme last October before beginning his journey he said, “It's no black art to sliding one ski in front of the other but what will drive me on is raising money for these wounded soldiers, guys and girls who face a lifetime of adversity...”, referring to the Endeavour Fund charity, for which he sought to fund raise to help wounded servicemen and women. Elsewhere he likened the forthcoming journey to “going to the gym for 10 hours every day with a five-minute break every hour for a flapjack, energy bar or some nuts.”

Starting out on 14 November 2015 - a century on from Shackleton's original expedition - he aimed to complete the 943 mile trek by January. On day 1 he noted in his audio diary “Good evening. So, underway at last. Thunderbirds are Go! It's minus seven Celsius only and no wind. It's just the best place on earth right now.”

But Worsley found himself enduring appalling weather conditions, with “hellish soft snow” that made walking difficult, temperatures down to 44 degrees below zero and white-out blizzards in which the visibility would drop to nothing. On one occasion he lost a front tooth after biting into a frozen energy bar; on another he was trapped in his tent by a storm that wiped out a colony of penguins.

On 1 December, he recorded: “Hard day. Toughest yet ... the highlight of the day was a four-hour storm with 35-40mph winds... The light was so black that on two occasions after stopping I fell straight over, such is the disorientating effect on your senses. I have achieved 9.7 hard-won miles today by walking until 7.45pm.”

He was inspired, he said, by Shackleton: “When facing a demanding challenge I might ask myself, 'How would Shacks get out of this then?'” But in his last diary message, on 22 January, the 70th day of his expedition, he said, “When my hero, Ernest Shackleton, walked 97 miles, from the South Pole on the morning of January 9th 1909, he said he'd 'shot his bolt'. Well today, I have to inform you with some sadness that I too have shot my bolt. My journey is at an end. I have run out of time, physical endurance, and a simple sheer inability to slide one ski in front of the other, to travel the distance required to reach my goal.”

He had covered 913 miles and was only 30 miles away from completing his mission. But the following day he was airlifted to a hospital in Chile, suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. He was found to have peritonitis, an infection of the abdomen, and died days later.

The Duke of Cambridge said, “Harry and I are very sad to hear of the loss of Henry Worsley. He was a man who showed great courage and determination and we are incredibly proud to be associated with him... We have lost a friend, but he will remain a source of inspiration to us all.”

Worsley's wife Joanna said, “Henry achieved his Shackleton Solo goals: of raising over £100,000 for the Endeavour Fund, to help his wounded colleagues, and so nearly completing the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic landmass, a crossing made, under exceptionally difficult weather conditions.”

His goal of £100,000 was exceeded in the days following his death; by 26 January it had gone past the £200,000 mark.

Alastair Edward Henry Worsley, soldier and polar explorer: born London 4 October 1960; MBE 1994; married 1993 Joanna Stainton (one daughter, one son); died Punta Arenas, Chile 24 January 2016.