MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Shackleton Fund with new website; makes important Falklands’ announcements

Patrick Watts MBE, first Falkland Islander to receive an Academic Award for his book on the history of the Stanley Sports Association

The Shackleton Scholarship Fund which is closely linked to the South Atlantic and the Falkland Islands has announced the launch of their new website: www.shackletonfund.com.

The SSF Committee say that they hope this will prove more user friendly for potential scholars and gives them a platform to more readily update the public on activities, projects and research funded by the Scholarship Fund.

The Shackleton Scholarship Fund is shortly to welcome 2011 Academic scholar Max Hull to the Islands. Mr Hull will visit between the 15th & 30th October to research his project “Understanding the Falklands in the period 1965 to 1982 – and their significance in a wider context”.

On the scientific front, Melanie Mackenzie, a 2012 Academic Scholar, will be in the Islands in February or March 2013 to research sea cucumbers.

Turning to sport, the Falkland Islands Archery Association, 2012 Quality of Life scholarship winners, will welcome a coach and technical adviser to the Falklands shortly to coincide with their first anniversary celebrations.

The Committee is also pleased to announce that Patrick Watts’ book on the history of the Stanley Sports Association should be on sale by the middle of November.

Mr Watts was the first Falkland Islander to receive an Academic Award.

The Shackleton Scholarship Fund was set up in 1995 to commemorate, in perpetuity, the lives of two remarkable men: Sir Ernest Shackleton was an outstanding leader in the golden age of Antarctic Exploration at the dawn of the Twentieth Century. His son, Lord Shackleton (Edward Shackleton), began as an explorer then won acclaim as a scientist, businessman, wartime Royal Air Force officer, statesman, and author of two reports for the British Government which laid the foundation for Falkland Islands' development and prosperity.

The Fund is a pragmatic, flexible way of commemorating the Shackleton achievements, stimulating human endeavour, initiative and research.

The Fund offers two types of scholarship.

Academic, for graduates to visit the South Atlantic for research into the natural or social sciences, in such diverse subjects as place names, the English language spoken in the Falkland Islands, Falklands society, fresh water fish, willows, grasses, geology, tree-growing, and many other topics. Several have produced research papers and compiled information for books.

Quality of Life: For people whose visits to the Falkland Islands or from the Falkland Islands to other parts of the world, benefit the region and enhance the quality of life of the Islanders. These have included top class sports coaches in swimming, golf, fly fishing, shooting and horsemanship; musicians and artists. Several scholarships have been awarded to Falkland Islanders. The Fund benefits both the scholars and the Falkland Islands by creating wider knowledge and promoting new skills and activities
The Patron is Princess Alexandra, who is also Patron of the Falkland Islands Trust, the charity of which the Shackleton Scholarship Fund is a part.

The Fund has raised more than £400,000 and awarded from its income some 90 scholarships, with grants totalling about £12,000 each year. The deadline for applications is 31 March each year.

It is hoped to raise more money to provide a larger number of scholarships, publicise the bursaries more extensively in universities and other places of learning and research, and widen the geographical spread to interest scholars from other countries, such as Chile, Uruguay, Australia and Russia.

The Fund is administered by two committees -- one in the United Kingdom, whose chairman is a former Falkland Islands Governor, David Tatham, CMG; and the other in the Falkland Islands, headed by the incumbent Governor, currently Nigel Haywood. The UK Treasurer is Hugh Normand. Lord Shackleton's daughter and Sir Ernest's grand-daughter, the Honourable Alexandra Shackleton, is a member of the London Committee.