A 100-year-old book signed by an Antarctic explorer and former Birmingham University vice chancellor is expected to fetch £10,000 at a London auction today.
Published in 1909, The Heart of The Antarctic was written by the legendary polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackle-ton and the copy on sale at Christie's in South Kensington is one of 300 signed by the author and every member of his 1907 to 1909 Antarctic expedition team.
It is one of 100 rare books put up for sale by Repton School and the collection is expected to fetch a total of £60,000 at auction.
Sir Raymond Priestley, the former Birmingham University principal and vice chancellor, was a member of the team and his signature appears in the book.
At the age of 21 Sir Raymond joined the exhibition as a geologist but spent most of his time caring for the team's ponies because of a knee injury. He was also a key member of Captain Scott's ill fated expedition in 1910 to 1913.
In 1938 he took up the post at the university and remained there for 14 years.
A Dictionary of National Biography entry for the explorer, who was knighted in 1949 and died in Cheltenham in 1974, says: "Captain Scott recruited Priestley when passing through Sydney to the Antarctic in 1910. He joined the northern party under Victor Campbell. After spending 1911 at Cape Adare, the sixman party was landed two hundred miles further south for summer fieldwork with provisions for eight weeks.
"The ship was stopped by pack ice from returning and the epic story of how the party survived and then sledged 250 miles to the main party early in the following summer is told in Priestley's book Antarctic Adventure.
"They survived the fierce winds by digging a cave in a snow-drift. A line across the middle of the 12ft by 9ft floor, separated the wardroom from the mess deck of three petty officers.
"By agreement, nothing said on one side of the line could be 'heard' or answered by those on the other side.
"Priestley considered this splendid training for dealing with unreasonable, irascible professors in later life without loss of temper.
"His responsibility for the commissariat in the ice cave in these circumstances shows an early reputation for fairness and reliability."
Dr Malcolm Dick, lecturer at Birmingham University's centre of lifelong learning and the school of education, is currently writing a book about the university's history.
He said: "Sir Raymond was a very interesting character and was quite an effective university administrator.
"We do have in Birmingham some of the rocks and other geological specimens collected in both of the expeditions and they are in the Lapworth Museum."
In the past, mementos from the polar exploration have fetched large sums of money. A biscuit which survived Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1907-1909 Antarctic expedition was sold at Christie's in 2000 for £4,935.
