World War IShackleton returned to England in May 1917, while Europe was in the midst of the First World War. He suffered from a heart condition, most likely made worse by the fatigue of his arduous journeys. He was too old to be conscripted, but nevertheless he volunteered for the army, repeatedly requesting to be sent to the front in France as a transport captain. Instead he was sent to Buenos Aires to boost British propaganda in South America. Unqualified as a diplomat, he unsuccessfully tried to persuade Argentina and Chile to enter the war on the side of the Allies. He returned home in 1918. Shackleton was then asked to be the leader of a mission to Spitsbergen, an island above the Arctic Circle and to the north of Norway, in order to establish a British presence there in the guise of a mining operation. However, in Tromsø, Shackleton suffered a heart attack and had to return. Despite this, he joined a military expedition to Murmansk, Russia, in the autumn of 1918; however the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, two weeks after he landed in Russia, and Shackleton returned home to publish the book Southh, about the Endurance expedition. Shackleton-Rowett Expedition and death (1921-22) Despite the events of the Endurance expedition, Shackleton set out again for the Antarctic aboard Quest intending to circumnavigate Antarctica by sea. Although some of his former crew members had not received all of their pay from the Endurance expedition, many of them signed on with their former "Boss". However, when the party arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Shackleton fell ill after a heart attack. Even so, he refused to return the ship to England or seek treatment, and Quest continued south. On 4 January 1922, the ship arrived off the coast of South Georgia. In the early morning hours, the expedition's physician, Alexander Macklin, was called to Shackleton's cabin and noticed that he was ill. Macklin suggested to Shackleton that he "take things easier in the future", to which the reply was: "You are always wanting me to give up something, what do you want me to give up now?" These were the last words spoken by Sir Ernest Shackleton. A few moments later, at 2:50 a.m. on 5 January 1922, he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 47. Macklin, who conducted the autopsy, concluded that the cause of death was atheroma of the coronary arteries exacerbated by "overstrain during a period of debility". Leonard Hussey, a veteran of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, offered to return his body to Britain; however, while he was in Montevideo en route to England, a message was received from Shackleton's wife asking that her husband be buried in South Georgia. Hussey returned with the body, and on 5 March 1922, Ernest Shackleton was buried at Grytviken. Although Shackleton had been generous to the family of crew by providing for them in the case of accidental death, he did not sufficiently protect his own family: his wife was required to live on her own resources following his death. Although Shackleton was not immediately recognised for his achievements after the Endurance expedition, in later years his exploits have been the focus of many books, television shows, charities, and memorials. Among these are the James Caird Society, organised in 1994, which was set up to preserve the memory of Shackleton and his achievements. The society is named after Shackleton's benefactor, who was also honoured by the naming of the lifeboat of 6.85 metres (22.5 ft) used to travel between Elephant Island and South Georgia. Its first life president was Shackleton's younger son, Edward Shackleton, and his granddaughter, Alexandra Shackleton, has been life president since 1995. The James Caird itself is at Dulwich College in London. Shackleton's grave, near the former whaling station at Grytviken on South Georgia, is frequently visited by tourists from passing cruise ships. In May 1998 the Shackleton Memorial Library opened at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. He is commemorated with a statue outside the headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, London, designed by the sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger. In recent years interest in Shackleton has revived, and he has become an icon of successful leadership for some modern business writers, who have published books extolling his leadership style. Lastly, Shackleton's death is considered the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, a period of discovery characterized by adventurers travelling to the South Pole, largely on their own without radio communication.
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 Sir Ernest Shackleton's grave in Grytviken, South Georgia
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