SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON’S SLEDGE HARNESS

Leinster Leader 18 August 1923

SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON’S SLEDGE HARNESS

Alexander Crabbe, New Zealand, Government Offices, wrote –

Dear Sir.

             -I am desired by the High Commission to enclose herewith copy of a letter he has received from Mrs. Kellett, a New Zealander at present resident in Edinburgh. From which you will observe that she is desirous of presenting to Kilkea, County Kildare. Sir Ernest Shackleton’s sledge harness. The High Commissioner will be glad to learn whether your Council are desirous of accepting the gift in question and would appreciate your early reply. In the event of acceptance the High Commissioner will ask Mrs. Kellett to make the presentation direct.

            The enclosed letter from Mrs. Kellett to the High Commissioner for New Zealand was read as follows: “I have in my possession a sledge harness belonging to the late Sir Ernest J. Shackleton. It was given to my late husband by one of the crew who went with Sir Ernest in his trip to the farthest South. It was the intention of my late husband, Ed. Kellett, M.P., for Dunedin North, to have a trip to the old country at some future date, and to present to Sir Ernest’s birth place the sledge harness that he himself used on his memorable journey. I have the harness with me and will send it on to you if you will be as good as to present it in the name of my late husband, Edward Kellett.

                 Mr. Colohan proposed that the gift be accepted. He did not know that it was much use to them as a County Council but still it belonged to a distinguished Co. Kildare man. He begged to propose the following resolution – “That the offer of Mrs. Kellett through Mr. Alexander Crabbe, Secretary to the New Zealand Government offices, be accepted, and the sledge harness used by the late Sir Ernest Shackleton in his trip to the furthest South be handed over to the Museum of St. Thomas’s College, Droichead Nua”

                 Mr. Cregan seconded the resolution which was passed unanimously.