Most people know about Scott of the Antarctic, John Mills starred in the
classic Ealing film of the same name way back in 1948. But how many remember
the support team that got him there? Those who should also be acknowledged?
Those who never came home? Great names like Oates, Evans, Bowers and Retford
of the Antarctic. Read on...
In September 1909, Captain Scott, C.V.O., R.N., published his plans for the
British Antarctic Expedition
of the following year, and the appeal resulted
in £10,000 being collected as a nucleus fund.
The Retfordian
Summer Term 1910, Volume IV, Number 2, page 33
OBITER DICTA
As is well known, Captain Scott, R.N., is leading a British expedition in a dash on the South Pole, and has appealed to the school-boys of Great Britain to assist him with funds as far as they can. In response to this call our boys subscribed exactly three guineas, which the Head Master increased to the amount required to provide one sledge. The following reply was received from Captain Scott:—
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29th March, 1910.
Dear Sir,—I have much pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of your subscription of £5 12s. 6d. towards the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910, which has been duly paid into the Expeditionary Account, from the Grammar School, Retford.
With our most sincere gratitude for your patriotic support and kind wishes for the success of the Expedition,—Believe me, yours very truly,
(Signed) R. SCOTT,
Captain, R.N.
(Commanding British Antarctic Expedition, 1910).
Rev. T. Gough,
Grammar School,
Retford, Notts.
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And in his own handwriting Captain Scott has added this post-script:—
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“Will you please give my hearty thanks to the boys for their generous subscription and good wishes. A sledge will be called ‘Retford.’—R.S.”
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Captain Scott’s vessel, the Terra Nova, left London at the beginning of June, and the gallant explorer himself leaves England in July to join his ship in New Zealand. We heartily pray that success may attend his enterprise, and that he and all his brave crew may return in safety.
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Retford was a 12-foot Norwegian niake sledge - 27 of which are
recorded as being subscribed, and presumably similarly named, mostly by
schools - one of 60 loaded on the Terra Nova and taken South by the
expedition in addition to the three motor sledges (£1,000 each) Scott
had placed so much faith in.
On the final Polar assault, Retford was pulled by Michael - one of
19 Siberian ponies (£5 each) bought for the trip in Vladivostok and
transported via Japan to New Zealand, which had been funded by St. Paul's
School - and led by 26-year-old
Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard, who was
an Oxford graduate and had offered £1,000 to join the expedition.
Cherry-Garrard was initially turned down, but Scott was so impressed when
the young landowner donated the money in spite of his rejection, he was
signed up as assistant zoologist.
Taken in October 1911 by expedition photographer Herbert George Ponting,
this picture shows Cherry-Garrard holding Michael’s head while Retford is attached.
Captain Oates is standing upright at the rear of Michael.
The ten ponies who had survived the first winter in the Antarctic set off
on their final one-way journey 31 October 1911. On 28 November the pony
Chinaman, being led by physicist Charles Silas Wright, was shot less than
90 miles short of the Beardmore glacier at Camp 24, and his shorter 10-foot
sledge was transferred to Michael. The Retford sledge was left at
this depôt (The South Pole Ponies, T.K. Mason, 1979).
Michael was shot on 4 December, at the end of the Barrier Stage in front of
The Gateway (to Mount Hope) at 83° 22' S. Three days of blizzards
followed, during which Cherry-Garrard wrote in his diary, "Michael is
well out of this: we are now eating him. He was in excellent condition and
tastes very good, though tough." (The Worst Journey in the World -
Antarctic 1910-1913, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Constable & Co. Ltd., 1922).
The first supporting party - Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard, B.A.,
Charles Silas Wright, B.A., Doctor Edward L. Atkinson, Surgeon, R.N. and
Petty Officer Patrick Keohane, R.N. - turned back at 85° 15' S, on
22 December.
Although Scott's final diary entry was dated 29 March 1912, the tent
containing Lieutenant Henry Robertson Bowers, R.I.M., Captain Robert Falcon
Scott, C.V.O., R.N., and Doctor Edward Adrian Wilson, B.A., M.B., was not
found until 12 November. Petty Officer Edgar Evans, R.N., had died on
17 February, Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates, 6th Iniskilling Dragoons,
went outside on 17 March.
Atkinson (who had taken over commanding the main expedition), Cherry-Garrard,
Keohane and Wright were among the search team to ultimately find, and then
bury, these last three members of the five-man Southern Party. Located only
eleven miles short of the main One Ton Depôt, records show that this Depôt
should have been positioned further south the previous year (more than
eleven miles), but due to exhaustion of the ponies and bad weather Scott
made a decision which may have ultimately cost his life.
"... Atkinson read the lesson from the Burial Service from Corinthians.
Perhaps it has never been read in a more magnificent cathedral and under
more impressive circumstances - for it is a grave which kings must envy.
Then some prayers from the Burial Service: and there with the floor-cloth
under them and the tent above we buried them in their sleeping-bags - and
surely their work has not been in vain. [...] We never moved them. We took
the bamboos of the tent away, and the tent itself covered them. [...]
A great cairn has been built over them, a mark which must last for many
years. That we can make anything that will be permanent on this Barrier
is impossible, but as far as a lasting mark can be made it has been done.
On this a cross has been fixed, made out of ski. On either side are the
two sledges, fixed upright and dug in."
(The Worst Journey in the World - Antarctic 1910-1913,
Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Constable & Co. Ltd., 1922).
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News of the Southern Party's fate was eventually transmitted to the world
on 10 February 1913, when the Terra Nova returned to New Zealand.
The Retfordian
Easter Term 1913, Volume VII, Number 1, page 5
OBITER DICTA
In connection with the passing away of the band of brave heroes under Capt. Scott, it is of sad interest to remember that among the thirty sledges given by various public schools for the Antarctic Expedition was one subscribed for by boys and masters of the Retford School. Besides the formal acknowledgement of this to Mr. Gough, Captain Scott, in his own handwriting, added the following:—
“Will you please give hearty thanks to the boys for their generous subscription and good wishes. The sledge will be called “RETFORD.”
R. SCOTT, CAPTAIN, R.N.,
Commanding British Antarctic Expedition, 1910.”
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Email sent by webmaster on 26mar2013
Hello Sam,
Thanks so much for the fascinating webpage.
I now have it online, go to www.eyemead.com/OPEN.htm
scroll down to page 50, and click on "Retford of the Antactic".
Sorry I'm a bit late with this email.
I've added a couple of Links. The story about Cherry-Garrard is
hair-raising. I've made a few minor changes to the HTML (mainly
so I can read it easily on my very ancient Word Processor
called Locoscript, which goes back to 1985 Amstrad days).
I think your webpage is the first I've ever received in hand-coded
format among the 5,000 I've written myself. Thanks.
With your permission, I'd like to add your last email to the
webpage, these things are always interesting from the human
point of view.
My wife enjoyed your remark about TESCO being around in 1911.
Keep up the good work.
Regards,
John Palmer, Dorset, England
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Email sent by Sam Curtis 25mar2013
Hello John,
Rather than go outside and make a snowman, I've spent the day (Sunday)
putting together a possible Section 50 for addition to your website,
attached as RGS-Scott.htm, with an accompanying picture (Michael.jpg).
While researching the WWI flying service ex-pupils, I found that some
were at KEGS when Captain Scott's ill-fated second expedition to the
South Pole took place.
I'm guessing most people, even Old Boys, are unaware that pupils and
masters funded a sledge for the expedition (Val Thomson may even have
donated twice as he went to Felsted School around this time, and they
had sent a donation used to buy one of the 32 dogs, Visoli, aka Jollyboy).
This meant that in addition to researching the boys' connections with
Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Egypt, Gallipoli,
Salonika, Mesopotamia, Turkey, Iraq, Palestine, North Africa, Nigeria,
South Africa, India, Assam, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, the West Indies,
Cuba, America and Canada, I had to take time to look as far south as one
can possibly get. If only I could find something to do with the North Pole
that would pretty much complete the continental set. Still time yet though!
(I wonder if Jack Gladish flying in Iceland during WWII would count?)
Adjust the HTML coding as you feel necessary if you would like to include
the info.
The link to pony Michael's picture, which includes the KEGS sledge,
has been coded so as to be located in the same directory as the article's
HTML file, like your other graphics. Apostrophe and quotation marks have
been "hard-coded", as I have found that the previous HTML file I sent you
garbles these when being displayed in a Firefox browser. The multiple
spaces for the gaps at paragraph starts and right-aligns have similarly
been annotated.
Noting Michael’s fate... I didn't know Tesco was around in 1911!
With kind regards,
Sam [Curtis]
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