Cart 0
Body at the Melbourne Club

Body at the Melbourne Club

Bertram Armytage, Antarctica's forgotten man

David Burke

Bertram Armytage, son of a wealthy squatter, a popular sportsman who rowed for Cambridge, was the first Australian-born member of an Antarctic expedition. An expert horseman, he was given charge of the ponies in Ernest Shackleton's great 1907-1909 expedition, narrowly escaping the jaws of killer whales. In London he was decorated by royalty, but on coming home to Australia he went to his part-time city residence, the exclusive Melbourne Club, put on his dinner suit and polar medals and, at the age of 41, shot himself. This mystery-cum-biography provides a new perspective on one of Shackleton's greatest expeditions.

$19.95

In stock

David Burke, OAM, a former journalist with the Melbourne Herald Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald, has made six visits to Antarctica and written three books on the subject: Monday At McMurdo; Moments Of Terror: The Story Of Antarctic Aviation; and Voyage To The End Of The World: With Tales From The Great Ice Barrier. He and Dr P. G. Law are the first (and so far, only) Australians to make a direct flight from Australia to the South Pole when they were members of a long-range US Navy crossing of the bottom of the world. David lives in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. This is his 22nd book.

Find out more

ISBN   9781862548336
CATEGORY   
IMAGES   3 x 8-page photograph sections
PAGE COUNT   240
DIMENSIONS   210 x 135 mm