The Death and Funeral of Tom Crean – 27th July 1938
This is the last known photograph of Tom Crean. On 27th July 1938, the death of Tom Crean — Ireland's unheralded hero — occurred in County Cork. In a sad twist of fate, the man who had saved the lives of others on the ice of Antarctica could not rely on that same generosity of fortune when his own hour of need arrived.
The Death of Tom Crean
Tom Crean was suffering from a burst appendix. Had it been treated promptly, it would have been a routine procedure — one that patients could recover from relatively quickly, without any long-term effects. But the danger of contracting peritonitis, if a burst appendix is not attended to swiftly, can prove fatal.
No doctor capable of undertaking the operation was available at the Tralee hospital he first attended. And so he was transferred by ambulance on a 70-mile journey to Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, where his appendix was finally removed.
The delay, however, had cost him dearly. An infection had developed, and after a week in hospital, the hero of three major Antarctic expeditions passed away. His death certificate records that he died of Acute Suppurative Appendicitis and Toxaemia.
The Funeral of Tom Crean
The following day — 28th July 1938 — his funeral was the largest that Annascaul had ever witnessed. Family, neighbours, friends, and former colleagues gathered to bid farewell to the Irish Giant. It would have been a still greater gathering, but the speed with which the funeral was arranged, as was the custom of the time, prevented many from attending.
"Deep and widespread regret is felt at the untimely and unexpected demise of Warrant Officer Tom Crean, R.N., retired, of Polar fame, which occurred on July 27th at the Bons Secour Home, Cork.
The funeral took place the next day after Solemn Requiem Mass from the Church of the Sacred Heart, Annascaul, to Ballynacourty graveyard which lies sheltered across the hill separating it from the homestead where he first saw the light some sixty years ago.
As a tribute to the popularity in which he was held, he was borne to the graveyard, a distance of nearly two miles, on the shoulders of Naval Comrades and neighbours, many of whom were his schoolboy contemporaries. The cortege, representative of every class of the community, was one of the largest ever seen in the district, and, as it wended its mournful way, many were the expressions of sorrow given vent to at the passing of a stalwart, who was a kindly neighbour and a good friend."
Burial at Ballynacourty — and a Final Tribute from Admiral Evans
Tom Crean was laid to rest in Ballynacourty cemetery, not far from his birthplace in Gortacurraun, in a family tomb he had built with his own hands. He was buried still wearing, around his neck, the holy scapular that had brought him comfort throughout a life of extraordinary peril. His strong faith had seen him through journeys that most ordinary humans could not have survived.
"Home is the Sailor, Home from the Sea"
That inscription appeared on the side of his tomb. Atop it lay a ceramic bowl of flowers sent by Edward Evans — the man whose life Tom Crean had saved some 26 years earlier on a solo march across the Ross Ice Shelf.
Evans was unable to attend the funeral himself, but upon hearing the sad news, had arranged by telegraph for the floral tribute to be sent through Crean's former Terra Nova colleague, Robert Forde. By the time of Crean's death, Lieutenant Teddy Evans had been promoted to Admiral Mountevans. He owed his life to the Kerryman and never forgot it — that bowl of flowers a timeless reminder of the debt of gratitude owed to a man who, on a number of documented occasions, had placed the lives of others above his own.
Remembered in the Irish Independent
A tribute written by George N. Gormley, which appeared in the Irish Independent a day after Crean's burial, and which can be read in full in the Tom Crean biography, paid the following tribute:
"Those of us who are old enough, read daily at the time the story of that epic struggle in the barren wastes; of the hunger, sickness, and unselfishness in comradeship where each and everyone risked their lives by acts of heroism that each might live — no one excelled Crean in the heroic part he played in all this."
Tom Crean had covered more miles on Antarctica than either of his two great expedition commanders, Scott and Shackleton. That a man of such endurance and selflessness should have died as he did — denied timely treatment through no fault of his own — is one of the more poignant ironies of his remarkable life.
Today, the memory of this great Irish hero is stronger than ever. It is a measure of his greatness that his incredible story continues to be held up as an inspiration to people of all ages, the world over. Long may his legend grow.
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