NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David C
Date: 2017 Feb 17, 19:01 -0800
Two of the men who took part in the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition are buried in the Karori Cemetary in Wellington NZ. According to the book Shackleton's Captain Harry McNeish was given a public funeral whereas that of TOH Lees (as he was called on his memorial plaque) was low key. McNeish was buried in a pauper's grave. In 1957 the grave was located and a plaque erected. A stutue of Mrs Chippy is on the grave. I do not know when it was erected.
I visited the graves today.
A plaque commemorating Lees is in the Old Soldiers section of the cemetary. There is nothing to indicate that Lees was part of a polar expedition. His Polar Medal is not mentioned.
McNeish is in the Church of England section. His plot is easy to find because of Mrs Chippy's statue. His participation in the polar expedition is marked by a plaque on his headstone and on an information board mounted on an adjacent plot. McNeish did not receive the polar medal for what the author of Shackleton's Captain calls "one act of madness". I noticed some flowers on McNeish's grave. I do not know who placed them.
When I called in at the cemetary office and asked for directions the receptionist opened a folder and copied a piece of paper. It was a map with handwritten instructions to find the graves. Obviously McNeish and Lees have regular visitors.
I have attached some photos and a kml file.
