Rector's Ramblings: Arnold Spencer-Smith (1883–1916)

Spencer-Smith, an Anglican priest, was the first clergyman of any denomination to set foot on Antarctica, to celebrate the Eucharist there, and to die there.

Posted this to my parish email distribution list today:

I thought some of you might find this interesting, as I did, when I first read this account (which I have slightly edited, collated, and condensed) on one of my Anglican Facebook groups last year!

---

The first clergyman of any denomination to set foot on Antarctica was Arnold Spencer-Smith (1883–1916), an Anglican priest who was chaplain and photographer for the Ross Sea Party of Shackleton's Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition. Spencer-Smith was the first clergyman to land in Antarctica, the first to celebrate the Eucharist and the first to die and be buried there.

Spencer-Smith set up a chapel in Ponting's darkroom in Scott's Hut at Cape Evans. He arranged an altar with cross and candlesticks and an aumbry where he reserved the Blessed Sacrament; he made a lamp to hang by the aumbry to indicate the real presence. In his diary, Spencer-Smith records when he celebrated Eucharist and how many were present. He also records when he heard confession on the continent.

Spencer-Smith was Curate of All Saints (now St. Michael and All Saints) Edinburgh 1913-14, which explains his Churchmanship. He was a graduate of Queen's College Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was ordained a deacon as curate to Christ Church Morningside in 1910, whilst teaching at Merchiston School. He was only ordained priest in 1914 before he went off to play with the penguins [sic]. He left on Shackleton's expedition shortly after ordination and never returned.

A cross on Wind Vane Hill, Cape Evans, Antarctica, was erected by the Ross Sea Party, led by Captain Aeneas Mackintosh, of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917, in memory of three members of the party who died in the vicinity in 1916 – including Father Arnold Spencer-Smith. The cross has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 17), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.

---

Wikipedia adds that the mission of the Ross Sea party was laying a chain of depots across the Ross Ice Shelf towards the Beardmore Glacier for Shackleton's intended crossing party. On the trail, Spencer-Smith fell ill with scurvy* at 83° south and was left alone in a tent for 10 days while the others continued on to lay the last depot. After their return he was pulled on a sledge back towards the base at Cape Evans, but died on the journey. Cape Spencer-Smith on White Island in the Ross Archipelago is named in his honour.

So there you have it! A little piece of Anglican history which is not widely known – that the first service of Christian worship, and the first Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood, to be celebrated on the Continent of Antarctica was officiated by an Anglican priest (and for worshipers who were, in all likelihood, largely Anglican). We do get around!

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Fr. Tom Harbold

(Who used to think he would have liked to be an Arctic or Antarctic explorer, but these days, is not so sure!)

* Scurvy is the traditional term for severe vitamin C deficiency, a frequent peril of long journeys in those days, when fresh fruits and vegetables were not available, and before the advent of vitamin supplements.

Side note: the existence of vitamins was not even discovered until 1912, and Better Nutrition notes that the

“history of the modern vitamin supplement began in 1916 with the development of Mastin’s Yeast Vitamon Tablets. With vitamins A, B, and C, iron, calcium, and Nux vomica, a homeopathic remedy for heartburn, its label claimed: ‘This preparation contains vitamines together with other ingredients which should prove of value in helping to improve the appetite, aid digestion, correct constipation, clear the skin, increase energy, and, as a tonic, to assist in putting on weight in weakened, run down conditions due to malnutrition.’”