One of the more popular graves in Karori Cemetery is that of Harry McNeish, who was carpenter on the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17 lead by Sir Ernest Shackleton. The figure of Mrs Chippy on the grave engages people, and of course kids love it. He (yes, Mrs Chippy was actually a boy cat) often has a garland or floral tribute draped around him. Poor Mrs Chippy had to be shot, along with the expedition dogs, when the Endurance became irretrievably trapped in pack ice in the Weddell Sea.
| Harry McNeish, sometimes known by the surname McNish, was a Scotsman with exceptional carpentry skills. He was responsible for much of the work that ensured the crew's survival after the Endurance was destroyed. The modifications he made to the small boat, James Caird, allowed Shackleton and five men (including McNeish) to make a voyage of hundreds of miles across the dangerous southern ocean to fetch help for the rest of the crew. The McNeish spelling is common but McNish is also widely used, and appears to be the correct version. McNish, at 40, was one of the oldest members of the crew of the Endurance and was regarded as somewhat odd and unrefined, but also highly respected as a carpenter. As carpenter he would have been referred to as Chippy, or Chips. After the expedition Harry resumed his maritime career, in the Merchant Navy,eventually securing a job with the New Zealand Shipping Company and moving to Wellington in 1925, living and working on the wharves in Wellington until his career was ended by an injury. Destitute, he would sleep in the wharf sheds under a tarpaulin and relied on monthly collections from the dockworkers. He was found a place in the Ohiro Benevolent Home, but his health continued to deteriorate and he died on 24 September 1930 in Wellington Hospital. Apparently a sympathetic MP arranged for the NZ government to pay for a plot at Karori, or so it is said in Appendix 2 to “Shackleton’s Captain: A Biography of Frank Worsley” by John Thomson. |  Clipped from the Evening Post via http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast |
McNeish’s funeral was probably the most impressive ever seen in Wellington for a man being buried as a pauper. The grave was not marked for many years, until the NZ Antarctic Society identified it from cemetery records in 1957 and accordingly erected a headstone. The same Society has more recently installed Mrs Chippy and a brief but informative interpretation panel alongside the grave.
McNeish was one of four members of the expedition excluded from an Admiralty award – the Polar Medal – which all other members received even though none had actually set foot on Antarctica. Three of the men were deemed not to have come up to the standards Shackleton required. In McNeish’s case, it is believed the clash between him and Shackleton on the ice was neither forgotten nor forgiven, and the withholding of the award was Shackleton’s revenge, no matter the extent to which the eventual retrieval of all men alive can be attributed to McNeish’s skills.
McNeish was one of four members of the expedition excluded from an Admiralty award – the Polar Medal – which all other members received even though none had actually set foot on Antarctica. Three of the men were deemed not to have come up to the standards Shackleton required. In McNeish’s case, it is believed the clash between him and Shackleton on the ice was neither forgotten nor forgiven, and the withholding of the award was Shackleton’s revenge, no matter the extent to which the eventual retrieval of all men alive can be attributed to McNeish’s skills.
The funeral procession is turning from Ghuznee Street to climb The Terrace and would have made its way through Kelburn and via the Karori Tunnel to the Cemetery. The houses on the right of the photo are easily identifiable today, 85 years later.
