Philip Lee Brocklehurst

Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst, 2nd Baronet (7 March 1887 – 28 January 1975) is known particularly as a member of the Nimrod Expedition in Antarctica of 1907–1909, led by Ernest Shackleton.

He was born at Swythamley Park, Staffordshire, in 1887. His grandfather John Brocklehurst had a silk weaving business in Macclesfield and was a Member of Parliament; his father Philip Lancaster Brocklehurst was created a baronet in 1903. Philip Lee succeeded to the title, as "2nd Baronet Brocklehurst, of Swythamley Park, Leek, Staffordshire", on 10 May 1904.

In 1904 he joined the Territorial Army in the Derbyshire Yeomanry, where he was later promoted to major in March 1916 and colonel in 1924.

He was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he left without taking a degree. He represented Cambridge University at boxing in 1905, 1906 and 1907 as a lightweight against Oxford University, and obtained a half blue.

Ernest Shackleton, looking for members of his proposed expedition to Antarctica, met Brocklehurst in London in 1906, and was impressed by his boxing achievements. Brocklehurst offered to contribute to the expedition funds. The appointment was confirmed in May 1907; he was Assistant Geologist.

He travelled independently, paying for a first class passage to New Zealand, where he joined the other members of the expedition on the Nimrod. After a base was established in Antarctica at Cape Royds in February 1908, he was one of a party which climbed the volcano Mount Erebus (unclimbed until then). The party of Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson, Alistair Mackay, Eric Marshall, Brocklehurst and Jameson Adams started on 5 March. Brocklehurst suffered from frostbitten feet, and was unable to complete the climb; the others reached the summit on 10 March. Afterwards, a big toe had to be amputated because of frostbite.

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