LETTERS carved in Cornish granite will pay enduring tribute to explorer Henry Worsley, who died in January 2016, having come within days of achieving his goal: to make the first solo, unsupported and unassisted crossing of Antarctica.

The 55-year-old had already completed two earlier group expeditions to the South Pole, and was the only person ever to have done so via both the Shackleton and Amundsen routes.

His final and most ambitious adventure, which he described as a ‘feat of endurance never before achieved’, was undertaken in support of the Endeavour Fund, a charity founded to help injured servicemen and women.

Henry set off in November 2015, 100 years after Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Endurance trip, to retrace Shackleton’s footsteps across Antarctica.

Just 30 miles from the end of his route, Henry collapsed. He radioed a message to say that like Shackleton, he had been forced to ‘shoot his bolt’. Initially suspecting exhaustion and dehydration, medics at the Union Glacier Base Camp discovered that Henry had developed bacterial peritonitis, an infection of the abdominal lining.

Henry’s ashes will be interred on the island of South Georgia in December close to his hero, Ernest Shackleton.

As he came close to the end of his expedition, Henry had been delighted to know that it had raised more than £100,000 for the Endeavour Fund. Donations today stand at more than £560,000.

Henry’s love of Cornwall led his widow, Joanna, to commission a memorial in Cornish granite, and this will be placed on a hillside overlooking the Whaler’s Church in Grytviken, very close to Shackleton’s grave.

The stone was chosen by Joanna from a Bodmin Moor quarry, and has been hand carved by stonemason Darren Piper.

‘Henry had all his childhood holidays in Cornwall,’ said Joanna.

‘His parents had a house on the coast, and they never went abroad, only ever to Cornwall, so there’s a very strong connection.’

Darren, who lives in Minions, says that when he began reading about Henry Worsley’s life, he felt privileged to be so closely involved with the dedication which will stand in Henry’s honour.

‘The guts of somebody to do something like that is incredible, he was an amazing bloke,’ said Darren.

‘I am very proud to be doing it.’

Later this month, Darren will travel up to Brize Norton himself with the memorial stone, from where it will be flown by military plane to South Georgia.