Rosie’s grandfather, 4th Earl Granville, had ambitions to explore the Antarctic and was selected for Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910-1913 expedition, such ambitions were thwarted when the 6’4” naval officer was wired only weeks before departure and informed that he was too tall for the expedition tents. Furthermore, he was told, his large frame would require extra rations, this being bad for the morale of the men.
Perhaps had the statuesque Earl gone with Scott, he too would have perished instead of which, less than a century later his 5’3” grand-daughter embarked on her own series of polar explorations, marked out for her diminutive frame in polar world of largely tall, strong men.
Less than five years after Scott’s tragic expedition, Rosie’s grandfather-in-law, Sir James Wordie, embarked on the great 1914-1917 Transantarctic Expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton as chief geologist. Sir James was also chairman of Scott Polar Institute Cambridge and President of the Royal Geographical Society.