DESCRIBING himself as “the ultimate Tom Crean nut”, Tim Foley has just published a fully illustrated biography of Ireland’s greatest adventurer, who is best known for his Antarctic expeditions.

Crean: The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero was a labour of love for Manchester-based Tim. It reveals new information about the man who was born in the village of Annascaul in the Dingle Peninsula of Kerry in 1877.

Contrary to lore that claimed Crean lied about his age to join the Royal Navy at 15, he was in fact 16-and-a-half when he started a career that would bring him to the most extreme environments on earth. While Crean’s three expeditions to Antarctica were well documented by those he served with, Foley’s book unearths new material outside of his time on the expeditions.

Many will have seen the impressive one man show, Tom Crean - Antarctic Explorer, by Aidan Dooley. Foley has enjoyed it and has read an account of Crean’s life released over 20 years ago.

“When I came to research Crean, I discovered that the seven years prior to his first expedition were really eventful. Before he went on his expedition on the (ill-fated) Endurance he was on HMS Enchantress.

"It was significant as Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was on board. And before he went on Endurance, he was head-hunted by Joseph Foster Stackhouse, a rival explorer who I’d never heard of before. Stackhouse planned to embark on the British Antarctic expeditions at the same time as Ernest Shackleton. He had secured Crean as his boatswain but Stackhouse had to postpone the expedition.”

Stackhouse was to die in the sinking of the Lusitania. Shackleton stepped in and Crean became the second officer on Endurance.

When the vessel sank, leaving the crew stranded, death was almost certain. But Crean and five others embarked on a journey hailed as the most daring and ambitious rescue in maritime history. It was the accounts of this episode, saving the lives of all 29 crew members, that led to the recognition of Crean.

In his biography, Foley writes that, in 1917, Crean was on a ship called HMS King Alfred, in Sierra Leone. “There isn’t any detail on this but nevertheless, it’s interesting. It places Crean in Africa, the only continent that I had believed he hadn’t visited.”

Crean travelled across the Americas and was based for three years on the Pacific coast, Foley discovered. Crean was in Hawaii at Christmas, 1895, and in Seattle on Independence Day, 1897. “That sounds like he was on a bit of a jolly, but it wasn’t like that because it was an era when the ships were safeguarding the interests of the empire. Territorial disputes were rife in the Pacific. It’s a whole new chapter in Crean’s life.

“He then went west to Australia. Again, it was an eventful time. He was travelling across the New Hebrides on a ship called the Ringarooma. In the warring tribes of the New Hebrides, cannibalism was still practised.”

Foley, who was captivated by Crean as a child, says of his hero: “Can you imagine if such a person existed today and undertook the feats Crean took, he’d be instantly recognisable. His face and name would be spread across social media.”

Foley’s campaign on facebook and other social media, as well as his book, aims to make Crean an international as well as Irish hero. Where did his fascination with the Polar explorer come from?

“My father was born about seven miles from Annascaul. His sister lived there so we visited our aunt quite often. I was always intrigued by the pub there, The South Pole Inn (which is still going strong under the ownership of the Percivals.) It was only years later I discovered Tom Crean was the former owner. I just couldn’t believe he had not been recognised by his country given all he had done. His story is incredible.”

There may even be a connection with Crean, says Foley.

 “My grandfather’s first wife (not his grandmother) was from Annascaul. She was called Hanoria Courtenay. Tom Crean’s mother was Catherine Courtenay.”

Tom Crean married in 1917 and had three children. The middle child became very ill and died aged three. “That was worse than anything Crean had ever faced in Antarctica.”

In 2010, Foley started a campaign to have Crean honoured in Ireland. “I was 11 years posting stories about him on social media, encouraging people to support the campaign and sign the petition. We achieved a victory in 2021 when the Irish government funded a scientific vessel called the RV Tom Crean. It was launched in 2022. It is still being considered as the replacement of the current Irish Navy flagship.”

When Foley presented his petition to the government in 2018, there were over 10,000 signatures. There are now 33,500 followers of the Crean story on Facebook. “That’s a drop in the ocean but those followers come from across the world, so hopefully Crean’s story will spread internationally.”

Crean never put pen to paper, describing his exceptional life. “I got some information about him through rough oral history interviews he’d undertaken. He did write a couple of letters to two people he was very close to, one being Lieutenant James Kennedy who appears to have been a mentor to Crean.”

Foley says one man posted on Facebook that he is educating his children about Crean as “he can’t think of a better role model. He was uncommonly loyal even in the face of death.”

Crean: The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero, by Tim Foley. €17.99.