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lazyanarchist — Heroes of the Poles #11: Lionel Greenstreet
#antarctica #polarexplorers #famousexplorers #enduranceexpedition #lionelgreenstreet
Published: 2016-09-01 19:59:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 398; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 0
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Lionel Greenstreet (March 20, 1889 - January 13, 1979)
Lionel Greenstreet was an English Navyman and explorer who served as First Officer on the Endurance expedition. When the first choice for the role was called for active duty, Greenstreet, who was in Scotland at the time, wrote a letter to Shackleton as an application. The day before the ship set sail, Worsley called Greenstreet and asked him to “come down to Plymouth.” Greenstreet, expecting only an interview, was not prepared when Worsley gave him the job outright, and had to hurry back to Scotland to prepare. He arrived only thirty minutes before the Endurance left port!
Greenstreet was described as being neat, diligent, and always ready to lend a hand for any job. Colonel Orde-Lees described him thus:
“The first officer of this ship is Greenstreet. Quite a youngster; too young in fact for an expedition of this sort, for although he is a born sailor and efficiency itself at his particular job, yet he lacks the experience and training necessary to make him an ideal messmate in such close quarters as a polar ship affords.“
During the voyage to Elephant Island, Greenstreet was aboard the Dudley Docker with Worsley, and assisted the navigator at the tiller. His feet also got quite frostbitten, which Orde-Lees cured by holding Greenstreet’s feet against his stomach so that they would be warm. Greenstreet was known for his incredible luck, however. Several years before, he had been thrown overboard the ship he was on by a massive wave, only to be thrown back on board by the next one!
After returning to London, Greenstreet enlisted and served as Second Lieutenant with the Inland Water Transport Engineers. In 1917, he married his first wife, Millie Muir. After the war, he worked as a Technical Officer at Richborough, overseeing tugboats. He then became Manager of a Marine Insurance branch with the shipping company Furniss Withy & Co.
During World War 2, Greenstreet, at over 50 years old, enlisted in the Navy again, and served in the Reserve as a Temporary Lieutenant. In 1955, his first wife having died some years ago, he remarried to Audrey Day. Neither of his marriages produced any children, but he was an uncle to many nieces and nephews. His nephew Richard said of him:
“He would have made a great father. He always had a twinkle in his eye, full of fun and playing jokes. One always felt that he was up to some sort of mischief. He lived his life to the full.
He lectured on his experiences with the Endurance as well as others during his travels on the high seas. As children, we found him to be a wonderful teller of stories of his life and those of his and his shipmates on the Endurance. Fortunately he lived long enough to be able to recount the same stories for our own children to hear first hand.”
Lionel Greenstreet was the longest-lived of the members of the Endurance expedition, and the last to pass away. Along with Charles Green and Walter How, he visited the newly-commissioned HMS Endurance in 1970. He died at the ripe old age of 89 in 1979, and his ashes were scattered at the Norwich Crematorium in Worthing, West Sussex. A tree was also planted there in his honor.
