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Wednesday 17 August, 1921

The selection panel takes place at Scout Head Quarters at 25 Buckingham Palace Road, London,

Shackleton is assisted in the selection process by Major Wade, Organising Secretary of the Scout Association, and Sir Percy Everett. 

Thursday 18 August, 1921

Shackleton selects two scouts to join the expedition, instead of one – Norman Mooney and James Marr.

There continues to be huge press interest in the project.

James Marr (18) is from Aberdeen where he attended Aberdeen Grammar School. He has just completed a degree in Classics at Aberdeen University. He is a member of the 1st Aberdeen Scout Group, and had in 1919 received citations for gallant action in saving a girl from drowning in the sea off Banff, Scotland.

Norman Mooney (17) is from Orkney, the son of an author and Justice of the Peace. His trip to the selection board in London is the first time he has travelled beyond Orkney.

Saturday 20 August, 1921

The fifty winners of the Daily Mail Scouts’ Essay Competition are addressed on Quest at Hay’s Wharf by Sir Ernest Shackleton at an event hosted by the newspaper. They then visit the Port of London Authority Building where they enjoy an open-air, roof-top show of magic given by the entertainers and conjurors Alan Adair and Herbert J Collings. Adair’s other persona is Basil Leakey, the partner of John Quiller Rowett, in the wine and spirits company, Rowett, Leakey and Co Ltd. In the evening the Scouts are treated to a West End show – The Maid of the Mountains – and then they return to the Quest to spend the night on board, sleeping in hammocks.