During their adventures together on Nimrod, the first of Shackleton’s three successful expeditions of the Antarctic, Wild became sick, leading Alexandra’s grandfather to make an incredible decision to save his number two.
“Frank Wild was the number two of the expedition had terrible diarrhea after eating rotting pony meat, which was all they had to eat,” Alexandra said.
“And while Wild struggled back on the painful struggle to the ship Nimrod, Wild wrote in his diary, ‘Before breakfast Shackleton gave me his only breakfast biscuit secretly and told me he would throw it away if I did not take it.
“‘No one will ever know what that meant to me. Thousands of pounds would not have brought me that biscuit.’ Now my grandfather didn’t even mention it in his diary. It makes me very proud.”
