The Annual Shackleton Lecture

Every year Dulwich College International arranges a lecture to commemorate the former Alleynian explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton who is widely known as one of the most inspirational leaders of the twentieth century. While he never achieved his personal dream of being the first to reach the South Pole, his reputation as a great leader is based on a still greater success: the survival and safe return of all of his team members, whilst overcoming almost unimaginable odds. Shackleton’s name lives on as a synonym for courage, bravery and most of all, leadership.  

The visiting speaker this year is a true explorer and a very inspirational person, Erden Eruç. He holds the record for circumnavigating the Earth solo and entirely by human-power, taking over five years to travel 66,299 km by foot, bicycle, ocean rowing boat and sea kayak. He also climbed three of the highest summits on three continents during his journey. Erden Eruç holds 14 Guinness World Records. He still wants to climb three more summits on the other continents. He brought with him a cloth outline of the boat he used for his ocean crossings. His key message to our students was to challenge themselves to have big and ambitious dreams and not to let fears, doubts or uncertainties hold them back from trying to achieve those dreams. Erden Eruç was a very engaging and interesting speaker and he stayed on after his talk to answer some of our students many questions. After the talk, he had lunch with our House captains and they quizzed him even more about his adventures.