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Will Gow, whose father's Great Aunt married Ernest Shackleton, reached the pole on 18th January 2009 after a gruelling expedition across the Antarctic.

Shackleton enjoyed a hero's welcome

Henry Worsley MBE led the team, he is distantly related to Frank Worsley who was skipper aboard Shackleton's ship, the Endurance. Henry Adams was also on board, he's the great grandson of Jameson Boyd Adams, second in command on the original expedition.

Just over one hundred years ago, Ernest Shackleton and his men aborted their cross-Antarctic mission barely one hundred miles from the South Pole. On 9th January 1909, "The Boss" as his men called him, planted the Union Jack flag at 88° 23' South.

Upon returning to England Shackleton was greeted at the docks by large crowds and eventually knighted in recognition of his achievement in travelling the furthest South that any Briton at that point had.

Will Gow is on the way to the South Pole

A century later and Will Gow and his team have gone one further than Shackleton's team and reached the South Pole. They have covered a distance equivalent to travelling from London to Aberdeen and across the treacherous Ross Ice Shelf and Beardmore Glacier battling temperatures that make our coldest winters look rather warm!