Leonard Hussey's account of how he came to join Shackleton's Endurance expedition...
"It was under the burning tropical sun of the Sudan that the thought first came to me of going to the Antarctic with Sir Ernest Shackleton, and possibly to the South Pole. I had been looking at a month-old newspaper in which there was a picture of the great explorer, and which also gave some details about his plans and preparations for the "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition" of which he was the organizer and leader. The idea gripped me. So, with youthful enthusiasm, I wrote him by the next mail to England, offering my services. I had at the time little expectation of being accepted, and it was very much to my surprise and delight that, in due course, I received a reply telling me to call on him when I returned to London. My luck in this respect was explained later to me by Shackleton, who said he was greatly amused to find amongst nearly five thousand applications to join his expedition, one that came from the heart of Africa.
I was twenty at the time and training to be a doctor..."
South with Shackleton
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