Tom Crean's Retirement

On March 24th, 1920, 43-year-old Tom Crean left the Navy and returned to a life of retirement in Ireland.

A month earlier on 24th February, 1920, he’d been admitted to Chatham Naval hospital after being diagnosed with Retinitis. Eyes that had been subjected to the fiercest and coldest conditions imaginable over the course of three Antarctic expeditions, were the cause of his retirement.

When he retired Crean had reached the status of a Warrant Officer. It was the equivalent of a commissioned officer rising through the ranks to reach the rank of an Admiral.

After a shaky start to his sea-going career, in which he’d come close to partaking in armed conflict in Nicaragua and other challenges in the Americas and Oceania, promotions were followed by demotions – he was clearly unhappy and his record at this time reflects this.

His subsequent time in the Navy would though, progress on a continual upward trajectory from the moment he set foot aboard RRS Discovery for his first journey to Antarctica.

Tom Crean had spent 8 years of his 27-year Naval career on expeditions to the continent that played host to his legendary feats of bravery.

Throughout his time on expeditions and on four separately documented occasions, he’d been singularly responsible, or had played a primary role in saving the lives of 30 of his colleagues.

He returned to turbulent times in Ireland as the War of Independence raged on. This and the Civil War that followed it were conflicts that divided families and generated differences of opinion across Ireland. Barely a month into his retirement Tom Crean’s brother Cornelius became one of the casualties of the fight to free Ireland from the governance of the British Empire.

Tom Crean’s patriotism was never in doubt and contrary to commonly held beliefs he was never ostracised by his community. It’s a point I believe I’ve succeeded in putting to bed after researching and writing up his biography.

Oblivious to the Easter rebellion that took place as he took up his cramped space aboard the James Caird on the very same day, there was much to catch up with on his return to Ireland.

It is true that he retired from elaborating about his life in the Navy and in Antarctica but this wasn’t anything other that a built-in reluctance to be the focus of attention. He shied away from such conversations only because it was an intrinsic part of his character to avoid the spotlight.

For all the blizzards and storms he’d faced and had come through whilst serving in Antarctica, no greater battle would be fought by Tom Crean than the one he would face in the aftermath of the conflicts.

The loss of a young child is devastating and the sense of grief is incomprehensible to the majority of parents whose children, as is to be expected, outlive them. Shortly after the death of his 85-year-old mother in 1924, Tom Crean would suffer the loss of his 3-year-old daughter in December of the same year.

His strong faith had seen him through the perils of the dramatic rescues he’d undertaken yet it must have been severely tested after his young child was taken from him shortly after returning from the Lourdes shrine he hoped would cure her.

The following fourteen years up until his death he remained in Annascaul.

In 1926, after an attempt to sell the public house he first purchased in 1916, he had a change of heart and in 1929 he set about renovating the place which had, for many years, suffered from flooding of the nearby river. On completion the sign upon the front elevation read: South Pole Inn. It was an open statement of his past and, I believe, a tip of the hat to Edgar Evans, the great friend he’d lost during the fateful Terra Nova expedition with Captain Scott.

Evans had openly shared his ambition to open a public house on the beautiful Gower peninsula and to grow his new business, he had spoke about making good use of the notoriety he would have gained in becoming among the first to reach the South Pole. If he had survived would the South Pole Inn have been a draw to Polar fans visiting Gower?

Tom Crean was an extremely popular member of his community. An entertaining, funny man who was liked by young and old alike and a man who continued his good deeds back home in Annascaul.