Special Features - Back to School

[capt_facepalm]

Hello and welcome to the “Special Features” section of: 'Back to School'.

I am your host, Capt_Facepalm, and I would like to introduce you to some extra information about the character Alexander Macklin.

If you have found yourself here without reading 'Back to School' you should go and read it now, then come on back and enjoy this little extra.

If you have read the story and discovered this linked Easter Egg, please proceed!

.oOOo.

The character of Alexander Macklin is based on the real Doctor Alexander Hepburne Macklin who read medicine at the University of London but completed his medical qualifications at the Victoria University of Manchester after serving for a year as a deckhand in the Mediterranean.

Macklin's father was a doctor in India when Alexander was born in 1889.  The family returned to England when Macklin was quite young and his father took up practice in the Scilly Isles.  Macklin grew up on the sea, was a skilled boat-handler, and piloted the boat which took his father to visit the outlying communities.

.oOOo.
 

Below follows an account of Macklin's job interview for the post of ship's surgeon in 1914, shortly after he received his medical qualifications:

"When the Endurance expedition was announced, Macklin presented himself early one morning at the office in New Burlington Street, to meet what he called a "living avalanche" coming down the stairs:

"'The Boss' himself, obviously going out," he wrote in a diary account. Macklin was told to go upstairs and wait.

In the afternoon, 'The Boss' finally returned, still in a hurry.

The interview was brief:

'Why do you want to go?"

"I don't know, I just want to."

"You look healthy enough; are you perfectly healthy... ?"

“Perfectly fit."

“What is wrong with your eyes?"

"Nothing." (Macklin was short sighted.)

At this I could have kicked myself for not removing my spectacles before going in to see him. I scarcely knew what to say, but replied almost without thinking, "Many a wise face would look foolish without specs."

At this he laughed, then seemed to be thinking of something else for he remained silent for several minutes. "All right, I'll take you," he said, and with that pushed me out of his office."

Source:  British Medical Journal, Vol. 307; 18-25 December 1993; pp. 1597-9
 

.oOOo.

By the way, 'The Boss' was Ernest Shackleton, and the Endurance expedition was the ill-fated Antarctic voyage which began in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War One.

Upon Macklin's return from the Antarctic in 1916, The War was well underway. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served in France, Russia, and Italy.  He was decorated for bravery (Military Cross) for his actions treating wounded soldiers while under fire.  Macklin also received the Order of St. Stanislaw and was twice mentioned in dispatches. 

In 1922, Macklin returned South with Shackleton this time on the Quest expedition. Shackleton died of a massive heart attack on the eve of the ship’s arrival in South Georgia. It was Macklin who had the unhappy task of preparing his friend’s body for burial. 

During World War II, he served in the Medical Corps in East Africa as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Macklin also received the Silver Polar Medal, a T.D. (Territorial Decoration), and the O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire).
 

Alexander (Mack) Macklin
circa 1915

I would like to think that his instructors played no small role in shaping this man's character.

 

.oOOo.

please feel free to comment