The Selwyn College resident is the great great grandson of Sir Ernest’s brother, and often wonders what it would have been like for the adventurers going down into the unknown dangers of the icy continent.
Sir Ernest led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, as well as the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917) which aimed to be the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent.
However, disaster struck when his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed.
The crew escaped by camping on the sea ice, before launching lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately South Georgia Island — Shackleton's most celebrated undertaking.
"It’s pretty cool just to know that there is someone that we are related to, that has been remembered and has done some pretty neat stuff," Jed said.
He admired Sir Ernest and those that travelled with him on the expedition.
"It would have taken a lot of guts to do something like that.
"They would have taken it out of somewhere deep down, to go for months without seeing any family members and brave that dangerous place.
"It was the great unknown then."
Jed will give a reading today at the 106th anniversary of the death of Reverend Arnold Spencer-Smith, who was an explorer, padre and photographer on Sir Ernest’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
He felt honoured to be part of an event which helped celebrate the lives of those on the expedition.
The event is to be held at All Saints’ Church.
Dunedin North Anglican Parish vicar and Selwyn College chaplain Reverend Canon Michael Wallace said there would be a mass at 5.30pm, in honour of Rev Spencer-Smith, using the chalice and paten he took to the Antarctic.
Following the service, there would be a reception in All Saints’ Hall, before the fourth annual Arnold Spencer-Smith lecture at 7pm.
The lecture would be given by University of Otago Centre for Sustainability ethnobiologist and conservation biologist Associate Professor Priscilla Wehi, and would be titled Transforming Our Thinking About Antarctica: Whakairo As Research.
