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Name: SHACKLETON, Edward Robert A.

Birth Date: 26 Sep 1904 Sunnyside, Carlow, Ireland

Death Date: 13 Jan 1985 Wallingford, Oxfordshire

First Date: 1927

Profession: A.D.C.

Area: Meru, Nyeri

Book Reference: Red 31, Hut, Dominion, Chandler

General Information:

Dominion - Administration Cadet - 1930
Chandler - An officer in the Kenya Administration 1927-34, Shackleton was somewhat wild and erratic. As District Officer at Isiolo, he challenged the DO Marsabit to a duel, each to be assisted by spearmen from their district. He would have Samburu helpers while the DO Marsabit would have men of the Rendille tribe. As often was the case in the Northern Frontier District, the dispute was over water holes. The proposed fight never came off. A few years later Shackleton was DO in Northern Turkana (where one of the main problems was Merille raids) when he disappeared. Scouts sent out to find him discovered that he had set up a boma in the Omo River Delta north of Lake Turkana. Even though this was in Ethiopian territory, Shackleton had decided to set up a station here so he could act as an ad-hoc DO Merille (who weren't even British Subjects) and prevent them from raiding the Turkana. Amazingly, the Merille thought it was great to have their own administrative officer in the neighbourhood, but Shackleton was ordered out of Ethiopia and back to his own job before the Ethiopians could raise a stink about it.
Gazette - 16/8/1927 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - Cadet, Administration - E.R. Shackleton

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