Dame Janet Stancomb-Wills collection

The collection comprises of correspondence by Dame Janet to or regarding the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton.

Janet Stancomb-Wills was the adopted daughter and niece by marriage of Sir William Henry Wills, first Baron Winterstoke. In 1912, she was appointed president of the Royal West of England Academy and the following year was the first woman to be elected town councillor for Ramsgate, serving as mayor between 1923 and 1924. A generous benefactor, she helped to finance the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1917 (leader Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton). A grateful Shackleton named a glacier for her as well as one of the three boats in which his party reached Elephant Island. Stancomb-Wills was interested in education, social issues and art, serving on many committees in Ramsgate. In 1927, she was appointed Justice of the Peace for Kent. She was created a dame in 1918 and she died on 22 August 1932.

The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by recipient.

By appointment.

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The term holograph is used when the item is wholly in the handwriting of the author. The term autograph is used when the author has signed the item.

Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to Robert Keith Headland Antarctic Chronology, unpublished corrected revision of Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions and related historical events, (1 December 2001) Cambridge University Press (1989) ISBN 0521309034 and Who was who, 1929-1940, Adam & Charles Black, London (1947)

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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