A very gallant gentleman

‘I am just going outside and may be sometime.’

With this classic piece of Great British understatement, Captain Oates bade farewell to his colleagues on Scott’s ill fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole.

It was exactly one hundred year’s ago today, that Captain Lawrence Oates, (‘the soldier,’ as they called him) with cripping frostbite uttered these words before stepping barefoot into a blizzard and -40°C. His body was never found.

Captain Lawrence 'Titus' Oates

Already saddled with the disappointment of being pipped to the post by Norwegian Roald Amudnsen, by March the return journey had become a nightmare, with the death of Edgar Evans in February. The party struggled on, making slow progress. Knowing he was a hindrence to the party, Oates made his sacrifice ultimately in vain as Scott, Bowers and Wilson were to perish too less than two weeks later – and only eleven miles from their food and fuel depot.

Oates himself was a polymath – a veteran of the Boer War, sailor and Etonian – but it was his expertise and empathy with horses that made him such a valuable member of the party.

In South with Scott, a first hand account of the expedition, Edward Evans remembers Oates’ extraordinary care for the ponies and his insatiable work ethic. The Terra Nova was caught in a storm and the animals were suffering in the wind and freezing rain on the deck: 

‘He was a fine and powerful man, and on occasions he seemed to be actually lifting the poor little ponies to their feet as the ship as the ship lurched heavily to leeward . . . One felt that Oates’ very strength itself inspired his animals with confidence.’

Whatever you think of the decisions taken by Scott and others on the expedition, the bravery and hardships these chaps put themselves through in the name of exploration continues to astonish and impress.

New Zealand's tribute to Captain Oates

So let’s salute a Great British hero and perhaps it’s also a good time to remeber Derek Mahon’s fine poem Antarctica. Click on ‘the soldier’ to read it.