- James McIlroy
James McIlroy, full name James Archibald McIlroy (
March 11 ,1879 -July 30 1968 ) was a British surgeon and a member ofErnest Shackleton 's crew on theImperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1916). He was born inUlster , Ireland on November 3, 1879.After McIroy earned his medical degree at
Birmingham University , he was for a brief time a surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. He spent several of the following years practicing medicine in Egypt, Japan, and as a ship's surgeon on cruise ships in and around theEast Indies .In 1914 he was one of two physicians who was with Shackleton on the expedition to Antarctica. The other surgeon being
Alexander Macklin . Among McIlroy's other duties on the journey was being in charge of the sled-dog team. Also, McIlroy performed the amputation ofPerce Blackborow 's gangrenous toes while the crew was stranded onElephant Island . Dr. Alexander Macklin administered thechloroform anaesthesia . For his work on the expedition, he was awarded the Silver Polar Medal.During World War I, he was badly wounded at
Ypres . In 1921 McIlroy signed up as a surgeon with Shackleton on another polar expedition, (theShackleton-Rowett Expedition ), however Shacketon died onSouth Georgia Island and the mission was aborted. In World War II, McIroy was serving on the "S.S. Oronsay" when it was torpedoed off the coast of West Africa, and he spent five days on an open boat before being rescued by the French ship "Dumont d’Urville". After the war, he remained a ship's surgeon well into his late seventies, he died inSurrey , England on July 30, 1968.References:
* [http://www.visitandlearn.co.uk/factfiles/obit19.asp HMS ENDURANCE TRACKING PROJECT]
* "Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage", pp. 206-207; Alfred Lansing
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