Sir Reginald William Skelton (3 June 1872 – 5 September 1956) was a British vice-admiral and engineer who served as chief engineer and official photographer of the 1901-1904 Discovery Expedition to Antarctica.

Early life

Skelton was born at Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, and educated at

Bromsgrove School Bromsgrove School is a co-educational boarding and day school in the Worcestershire town of Bromsgrove, England. Founded in 1553, it is one of the oldest public schools in Britain, and one of the 14 founding members of the Headmasters' Confer ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

. He joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

in 1887 and until 1892 studied at the

Royal Naval Engineering College The Royal Naval Engineering College was a specialist establishment for the training of Royal Navy engineers. It was founded as Keyham College in 1880, new buildings were opened in Manadon, Devon in 1940 and the old college site at Keyham close ...

at Keyham, Devon. Once commissioned he served on HMS ''Centurion'' in China from 1894 to 1897 and HMS ''Majestic'' of the Channel Squadron from 1899 to 1900 before being appointed to supervise the building of the ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

'' for the 1901 National Antarctic Expedition.

Polar exploration

Scott, the expedition leader, had been impressed with Skelton's engineering abilities aboard the Majestic and so he was appointed Chief Engineer of the expedition. He also acted as expedition photographer. Nicknamed 'Skelly', there were no serious difficulties with any of the machinery under Skelton's care throughout the three-year expedition. Once established on the

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

he became a well-respected member of the team (Huxley 1978), eventually having four features named after him: an inlet, a glacier, an icefall and a lévé. On his return he married his fiancée, the New Zealander Sybil Devenish-Meares of Christchurch: they had two daughters and a son.

Later life

From 1906 to 1912 and again between 1916 and 1918, Skelton served in the submarine service. He hoped to be Scott's second-in-command for the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910-1913 but was overlooked in favour of Edward Evans who had been planning his own expedition to Antarctica but agreed to join Scott's expedition provided he was offered the position of second-in-command. During the First World War Skelton was awarded the DSO for his actions at the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...

, 31 May 1916. Appointed CB in 1919 for his work in North Russia, he continued to rise through the

service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

after the War, being posted to Archangel, Constantinople, to the Mediterranean Station and to the Atlantic Station. He became Engineer Rear-Admiral in 1923, Engineer Vice-Admiral in 1928 and Engineer-in-Chief of the Fleet, Admiralty, 1928–32. He was knighted in the 1931 New Year Honours. and retired in 1932. He died in 1956, aged 84, at his home in Aldingbourne.

Legacy

Skelton was portrayed by Cliff Burnett in the 1985 Central Television serial '' The Last Place on Earth''.

References

Bibliography

* Obituary by Michael Barne ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 122, No. 4 (Dec., 1956), pp. 533–534 *Scott Fiennes, R. (2003 London Coronet) *Scott of the Antarctic Huxley, E.J.G (1978 London, Atheneum) * Discovery Illustrated J V Skelton, J.V. & Wilson, D.W. (2001). Reardon Publishing. * ''The Antarctic Journals of Reginald Skelton:'' Skelton, J.V. (Ed) (2004, Reardon Publishing). {{DEFAULTSORT:Skelton, Reginald William 1872 births People educated at Bromsgrove School Recipients of the Polar Medal Royal Navy vice admirals Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 1956 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Long Sutton, Lincolnshire People from Aldingbourne Military personnel from Lincolnshire Royal Navy officers of World War I 19th-century Royal Navy personnel