Alexander Kerr

Alexander John Henry Kerr (born 2 December 1892 (East Ham, Essex), died 4 December 1964 (Stepney)) was an English marine engineer and wholesale newsagent. He is best known for his service in the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, for which he was awarded the Silver Polar Medal.

Kerr was born on 2 December 1892 in East Ham, which was then part of Essex but has since become part of Greater London. As a man trained for work with marine engines, he signed on the Endurance as the second engineer. Although the Endurance was rigged as a barquentine, it also had a coal-burning engine and spent much of its time under steam.

Working under the supervision of chief engineer Lewis Rickinson, who became Kerr's friend and cabin-mate, Kerr tried to help power the Endurance to the destination selected by the expedition leader, Sir Ernest Shackleton. Their goal was the Filchner Ice Shelf attached to the continent of Antarctica. To get to this goal the Endurance, her crew, and her shore party had to made their way through the ice-filled Weddell Sea. Instead of reaching the ice shelf, the expedition ship was beset by pack ice as the Antarctic winter of 1915 closed in. Conditions worsened during the winter and Shackleton was forced to order his men to abandon the Endurance in November 1915. Kerr and his expedition mates were castaways on the Weddell Sea. With Rickinson and his other comrades, Kerr camped on ice floes that drifted north towards the Drake Passage and into warmer water. As their solid refuge melted under their feet, Kerr and the other men of the expedition were then forced to take to lifeboats. After a dangerous open-boat journey, the party made land at Elephant Island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Elephant Island party was rescued in August 1916.

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