What a man Thomas Crean was ..... Able seaman Discovery 1901-04 - Petty officer Terra Nova 1910-13 - Second officer Endurance Endurance 1914-17 !! Tom Crean served both Scott and Shackleton and outlived them both - Tom was one of ten children, he was born on the family farm at Annascaul on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland. Life was hard and so Tom joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15, by the age of 22 in 1899, he had worked his way up to the rank of Petty Officer. Once again on his return to England, Crean resumed his naval career at Chatham. He married Nell Herlihy in 1917 back in his home town of Anascaul, Nell had been his childhood sweetheart, though they were aged 40 and 36 by the time they married. For the rest of the First World War, Crean served in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Colleen. Shortly after the war ended, Crean was given early retirement at the age of just 42 in 1920 following a bad fall on his ship. Shackleton wanted Crean to return to Antarctica with him once again on the Quest expedition, but the offer was declined and Tom settled down to married life and raising his family of four daughters. In 1927 Tom opened a pub in Annascaul that he called "The South Pole Inn", he ran the pub with Nell until 1938 when after falling ill with stomach pains, he was admitted to hospital in nearby Tralee. Acute appendicitis was diagnosed, but no one was available for the simple routine appendectomy and he was transferred to hospital in Cork 80 miles away. The delay led to infection setting in and he died a week later on 27th July 1938 at the age of 61. He was interred in a tomb he had built himself in the village of Ballynacourty near where he was born. Almost the entire population of Annascaul turned out to show their respect for one of their most famous sons. http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/History/biography/crean_thomas.htm http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=23045
