Keith Shackleton MBE
It is with great sadness we announce that founder SWLA member and former president of the society Keith Shackleton MBE died on Friday 17th April.
Keith was a brilliant painter and
he was a great inspiration to many of us within the society. A master of the stormy sea and of the icebound lanscapes of Antarctica he also served as president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. As a conservationist he helped Sir Peter Scott in setting up the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, of which he was vice-president, and he gave huge support to wildlife conservation in the Antarctic. Painter, wildlife conservationist, television presenter, pilot, internationally acclaimed yachtsman; his list of achievements is too long to list here and there will be a full obituary to him in a newsletter later this year.
For those who knew him he was a kind and generous man with a great sense of humour and an often mischievously witty turn of phrase; a great raconteur who had a seemingly endless fund of stories and anecdotes, drawn from a rich life filled with enviably fascinating adventures. He was a modest, self-deprecating man with infinite charm — he was a true gentleman in every sense of the word. He will be greatly missed and our hearts go out to his wife, Jacqueline, and to all of his family.