In the years since returning from his first Antarctica Expedition aboard Discovery, Tom Crean was so valued by his commander, Robert Falcon Scott, that he accompanied his Captain on all of his seagoing Naval assignments between September 1906 and March 1909. On June 15th, 1910, he departed Cardiff aboard the ship Terra Nova again under the command of Captain Scott. It would be his second expedition to Antarctica.

It was on this expedition that Tom Crean’s individual acts of heroism were documented and his bravery resulted in saving the lives of three of his colleagues.

This was also the expedition that would see the loss of Captain Scott and his Polar party of five men including Crean’s great friend, Edgar Evans who he is pictured with here.

Edgar grew up in similar impoverished circumstances as Tom Crean and they were both born in coastal areas of natural beauty – the commonalities they shared could be a reason why they became such firm friends.

It was Edgar’s ambition to run a public house on the Gower Peninsula in Wales where he was born, had he made it home from the Terra Nova Expedition.

Sadly he he was the first of Scott’s Polar party to perish on the return from the South Pole. I believe that in calling his public house the South Pole Inn when it was built in 1929, was Crean’s tribute to his lost friend.
The Terra Nova expedition saw Scott beaten in the race to reach the South Pole by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

The story of Captain Scott and his polar party’s demise would, understandably, overshadow the heroics of Tom Crean which would later see him being awarded the Albert Medal for his bravery.

To read Tom Crean’s full story, the book, published by Merrion Press in May 2023, can be purchased at all good bookstores and is widely available online. The following page provides further details and links to booksellers who offer the biography. You will also find links to purchase the biography Tom The Mighty Explorer,  written for children aged 6-10 years-old.

Biography of Tom Crean – Crean – The Extraordinary Life of an Irish Hero