his mother, Annie Mackintosh, suddenly returned to Britain, bringing the children with her. The reasons for the family rift are unknown, but it was evidently permanent. His father had Bright's disease and remained in India. Aeneas never saw his father again but remained fond of him, writing regularly; his father kept every letter but they were found unopened when his father died. At home in Bedfordshire, Aeneas attended Bedford Modern School. He then followed the same path as had Ernest Shackleton five years earlier, leaving school at the age of 16 to go to sea. After serving a tough Merchant Officer's apprenticeship, he joined the P and O Line, and remained with this company until he was recruited by Shackleton's Nimrod expedition, which sailed for Antarctica in 1907. Before the expedition's departure Mackintosh was commissioned as a sub lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. Nimrod Expedition The Nimrod Expedition, 1907–1909, was the first of three Antarctic expeditions led by Ernest Shackleton. Its objective, as stated by Shackleton, was to "proceed to the Ross Quadrant of the Antarctic with a view to reaching the Geographical South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole". Mackintosh was recommended to Shackleton as a suitable officer by the P & O Line, and soon earned Shackleton's confidence while impressing his fellow-officers with his will and determination. While the expedition was in New Zealand, Shackleton added Mackintosh to the shore party, as a likely candidate for the polar march. On 31 January 1908, not long after Nimrods arrival at McMurdo Sound in the Antarctic, Mackintosh was assisting in the transfer of sledging gear aboard ship when a hook swung across the deck and struck his right eye, virtually destroying it. He was immediately taken to the captain's cabin where, later that day, expedition doctor Eric Marshall operated to remove the eye, using partly improvised surgical equipment. Marshall was deeply impressed by Mackintosh's fortitude, observing that "no man could have taken it better." The accident cost Mackintosh his place on the shore party, and required his return to New Zealand for further treatment. He took no part in the main events of the expedition, but returned south with Nimrod in January 1909, to participate in the closing stages. Shackleton, who had earlier fallen out with the ship's master, Rupert England, had wanted Mackintosh to captain Nimrod on this voyage, but the eye injury had not healed sufficiently to