The sledge is one of the most visual and valued of the school’s artefacts. For nearly 30 years, it has been displayed in a large deep void above the door in the History Room (R10) in the Betws Building. It was not easily noticed (despite its size!), unless you looked up as you exited the room.

With the recent redevelopment of the inside of the Betws Building as the home for our new Senior School, the sledge has just been moved to the wall inside the main foyer, close to the school reception area and the Head Master’s study. It will certainly be much more accessible to those who pass through and can now be viewed up close at eye level!

Part of history is the passing on of oral stories and, as we say to the boys, being a good historian is like being a detective, searching for clues and records to confirm or give information a place in our history. Sometimes records don’t exist or can’t be found, so educated guesswork is needed. I’d heard stories from staff and alumni that the sledge was from a Shackleton trip, others that it was from Scott’s expedition and that it was even used to transport the body of an explorer or an injured explorer back to the ship.

This Antarctic Nansen Sledge is actually related to the story and adventures of our alumnus, Henry Edward de Parny Rennick. The plaque (which was possibly separated from the sledge in the past) states that it was from Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913) and that Henry de Parny Renwick presented it to the school.

The article written about Henry de Parny Rennick’s sledge and career on the Dulwich Prep Alumni Association’s Facebook page on 8 February 2019 gave a very good overview of his remarkable life story. I will not repeat it all, but I have pulled out key points and included others that add to what we know or believe.

Henry Rennick (to which he is sometimes referred) was born in February 1881. His parents were Major Edward Joseph de Clanay Rennick (an Indian Army Officer) and Caroline Matilda Cazalet. One record says he was born in Northwest London, and another says he was born in India. He had two siblings, an older brother, Robert William de Clanay Rennick (b. 1878) and a sister, Evelyn Grace Rennick. His father died in 1889 (aged 43 years), and his mother was later remarried to another Indian Army Officer, Lieutenant General Sir Francis Booth Norman, in March 1892.

I have not seen or found any old Prep roll records of boys from the early years of the school (but I am still looking!). Still, it seems clear that Henry left the Prep in 1894 (aged 13) to go to HMS Britannia, which later became Dartmouth Naval College, where cadets did further study for at least one year. Naval records confirm that de Parny Rennick joined the Royal Navy in July 1895. Meanwhile, his elder brother Robert went to Dulwich College from 1892 to 1894 (but not the Prep). Their stepfather, mother, and family had returned to the UK and to the Dulwich area, where the family address was Rosendale Road. Sir Frances Booth Norman became an Estates Governor. He died in 1901 and is buried in West Norwood Cemetery.

Henry de Parny Rennick served as a Lieutenant on HMS Dryad before joining the Terra Nova and the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott. The Expedition, which lasted from 1910 to 1913, was partly to be the first to the South Pole but also one of research and scientific investigation. The Terra Nova set sail from Cardiff and, on the journey down, stopped in South Africa and then in New Zealand, where Henry Rennick met his future wife, Isobel Forsyth Paterson, who was from Dunedin.

When the Terra Nova arrived in Antarctica, it seemed Rennick would join the shore party. For either medical or organisational reasons, Scott swapped him and his cabin mate, Lieutenant Henry Bowers (who was one of the five men who lost their lives on the Expedition). Lieutenant de Parny Rennick stayed aboard the ship. At the time, Scott noted that he could understand how Rennick was very disappointed at this decision.

As a result of being on the ship, there are fewer records of him and his party compared to those taken by the shore party. Henry Rennick, however, had a vital role on board the Terra Nova as he was a hydrographer taking soundings on her journey around the Antarctic and New Zealand waters. ‘Parny’, as he apparently became known on the Expedition, was said to have a great sense of humour and was a practical joker. He was also recorded as being an excellent player of the pianola and flute. Rennick was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in June 1911.

The ill-fated land expedition resulted in the deaths of Captain Scott and four other members of the party in March 1912, after finding that they had been beaten to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen some five weeks earlier.

The Terra Nova returned to Cardiff in 1913. Henry de Parny Rennick married Isobel Forsyth Paterson in April 1914 at Westminster, London and was then called up for war and joined HMS Hogue as navigating officer. Sadly, within weeks of the start of the war, HMS Hogue was torpedoed by the German U-Boat U9 off the Dutch Coast. She and her sister ship were going to aid the third ship in their group, which the same U-boat had just torpedoed. All three were torpedoed and sank within two hours. It is said Henry Rennick actually survived the initial explosion but gave his lifebelt to another sailor who had a family, not knowing that his wife Isobel was pregnant.

He was one of over 1450 lost at sea from the three ships. His son John Henry de Parny Rennick was born the following February (1915).

It is an amazing tale and one we can be extremely proud of at school. A few questions remain. Where did the ‘Parny’ come from in his name, given that his father and brother were De Clanay Rennick (or De Clancy Rennick in some records)? When the Terra Nova returned to Cardiff and with war approaching, how did the sledge end up in Henry Rennick’s possession, and did he come to the school in person to present it (as the plaque suggests), or was it given to the school by his family at a later date?

We believe there were forty-four Nansen sledges taken on the Expedition. Twenty-four of 12ft (3.65 metres) in length, ten of 10ft (3.05 metres) and ten of 9ft (2.74 metres). There are three in the collections of The Polar Museum in Cambridge, one at The Science Museum, two in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and one in Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. Some of the sledges were given to the expedition on behalf of particular schools, but there seems to be no records that this is the case with The Prep sledge. The sledges that survive are poignant reminders of the harsh Antarctic environment and travel difficulties in the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

Lt. Commander Henry de Parny Rennick R.N.’s story, both in the Navy and on the British Antarctic Expedition, is one that should and will always be remembered by The Prep’s staff and boys. The more I have investigated, the more compulsive reading and moving it becomes. The sledge will always be treasured by the school.

If there are any contacts from his family, please do get in touch. I would love to find out more.

Mr Craig Gordon

With thanks to:
The Keeper of the Archives at Dulwich College
The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Useful references:
www.patron.com
BBC Repair Shop Series 4 Episode 30 (features Henry de Parny Rennick’s Granddaughter)