Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

‘There are some men who will do more than their share of work and who will attempt more than they are physically able to accomplish. Rickenson was one of these eager souls.’

Shackleton’s South refers.

The rare Great War and Polar exploration group of four awarded to Engineer Commander L. R. “Ricky” Rickinson, Royal Navy, who lent valuable service to Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914-16 expedition prior to his collapse on Elephant Island

British War Medal 1914-20 (Eng. Lt. L. R. Rickinson, R.N.); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Lewis R. Rickinson); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Eng. Lt. L. R. Rickinson, R.N.); Polar Medal 1904, silver, G.V.R., 1 clasp, Antarctic 1914-16 (L. Rickinson, Chief Engineer, “Endurance”), mounted as worn, very fine and better (4) £8000-10000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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Provenance: Christie’s 25 September 2001, when sold by a direct descendant.

Lewis Raphael “Ricky” Rickinson was born in Lewisham, London, in April 1883, but came from a family with ties to the sea, his grandfather having been a prominent Whitby ship owner. Himself going to sea for the first time as a Fourth Engineer on a tramp steamer in the early 1900s, Rickinson obtained his Board of Trade Certificate of Competency as a First Class Engineer in May 1910. And, following a successful application to join Shackleton as his Chief Engineer, joined the Endurance in London in July 1914.

South with Shackleton

A quiet and modest man, Rickinson quickly established himself as a popular shipmate in the voyage south to the Weddell Sea, an array of published sources offering glimpses of him at work and play - thus mention of him playing the part of a woman in a mid-winter’s day concert held on Endurance and accompanying Hussey’s banjo with a fiddle; so, too, of the occasion the crew had their heads shaved - Rickinson agreed to the ordeal only if he could shave Shackleton’s head first, as a result of which “The Boss” emerged looking like a ‘Dickensian convict’.

Of the expedition’s eventual fate little requires elaboration here, the Endurance famously becoming trapped in pack ice in January 1915, before Shackleton’s trans-continental party could even reach it starting point. And following the demise of the Endurance in November 1915, when left with three lifeboats and meagre rations, he and his men undertook a remarkable journey to ‘escape the ice’, camping out on floes that eventually took them 1600 miles north - Rickinson travelled with Worsley in pole-tent no. 5, hauling the Stancomb Wills and, in the words of Shackleton, was a useful hand:

‘A path over the shattered floes would be hard to find, and to get the boats into a position of peril might be disastrous. Rickenson (sic) and Worsley started back for Dump Camp at 7 a.m. to get some wood and blubber for the fire, and an hour later we had hoosh, with one biscuit each. At 10 a.m. Hurley and Hudson left for the old camp in order to bring some additional dog-pemmican, since there were no seals to be found near us. Then, as the weather cleared, Worsley and I made a prospect to the west and tried to find a practicable road. A large floe offered a fairly good road for at least another mile to the north-west, and we went back prepared for another move. The weather cleared a little, and after lunch we struck camp. I took Rickenson (sic), Kerr, Wordie, and Hudson as a breakdown gang to pioneer a path among the pressure-ridges. Five dog teams followed. Wild's and Hurley's teams were hitched on to the cutter and they started off in splendid style ... ’

At last, in early April 1916, the ice began to break up, thereby allowing them to launch their lifeboats in a bid to reach Elephant Island, 60 miles distant. It was an epic open boat voyage that took six days. But, as confirmed by the “Boss”, Rickinson was taken ill on the expedition’s arrival at Elephant Island:

‘We were labouring at the boats when I noticed Rickenson (sic) turn white and stagger in the surf. I pulled him out of reach of the water and sent him up to the stove, which had been placed in the shelter of some rocks. McIlroy went to him and found that his heart had been temporarily unequal to the strain placed upon it. He was in a bad way and needed prompt medical attention. There are some men who will do more than their share of work and who will attempt more than they are physically able to accomplish. Rickenson (sic) was one of these eager souls. He was suffering, like many other members of the Expedition, from bad salt-water boils. Our wrists, arms, and legs were attacked. Apparently this infliction was due to constant soaking with sea-water, the chafing of wet clothes, and exposure.’

And it was on account of just such a state of affairs that Shackleton mounted what was to become one of the great open-boat voyages of all time, namely his remarkable journey in the James Caird to South Georgia, 800 miles distant, from whence a successful rescue mission was mounted to collect the 22 men who had been left on Elephant Island under Frank Wild - his rescue ship finally hove into view on 30 August 1916. Meanwhile, in the words of “The Boss”, Rickinson ‘bore up gamely to the last’, living inside the upturned Stancomb Wills with two other invalids. Wild, too, noted that he remained ‘very cheery’, though still weak and ill.

Post-Antarctica

Following his return to the U.K., and having been employed by the Inland Water Transport, R.E., in the interim, Rickinson was commissioned as an Engineer Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, in which capacity he served until demobilised in March 1919. A member of the Institute of Marine Engineers, he next established his own business as a naval architect and consulting engineer and was approached by his old boss in March 1921, when Shackleton asked him to survey the Foca (later Quest) in Norway.

Having remained on the Special Reserve of Engineer Officers (R.N.) until April 1928, Rickinson was recalled on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, initially serving as an Engineer Lieutenant-Commander at the Admiralty. Having then served at the London base President in 1940, he was advanced to Engineer Commander in May 1943, and transferred in the same month to the staff of the S.N.O. of ‘Force J’ at Vectis on the Isle of Wight, later re-titled ‘Assault Group J’, where he worked on Combined Operations’ assault craft. The Normandy landings accomplished, Rickinson then took up an appointment in Shrapnel and, later still, Pembroke, prior to his death in April 1945, aged 62 years.

At his funeral, ‘the coffin was covered with the Union Jack and upon it was the late Commander’s hat, sword and medals, one of which was the Polar Medal.’

One of those strange coincidences that sometime arise in life was pertinent to the Rickinson-Shackleton story - Rickinson was born in a house named Chetwynd Place and Shackleton’s mistress was Rosalind Chetwynd.