Captain Scott - 2012 marks the 100-year anniversary of the tragic death of arguably Plymouth’s most famous explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Scott led a team of brave and adventurous men on an extraordinary expedition across the Antarctic to the South Pole, but sadly died on the return journey. At the time, Plymouth City Council commemorated his achievements by creating the Scott Memorial at Mount Wise, Devonport, overlooking Plymouth Sound. Plymouth Hospitals Trust still backs polar exploration through the provision of a medical support unit to the British Antarctic Survey. And in 2012 Plymouth Council intends to celebrate the centenary of Scott’s demise with a variety of exhibitions, talks and workshops.

Robert Falcon Scott, known as “Con” to his family, was born on 6th June 1868 on a small country estate called ‘Outlands’ in Stoke Damerel, Devonport. One of 6 siblings, he spent his early years at a local day school before attending a boarding school in Hampshire where he undertook intense studying in preparation for the entrance exams for the Royal Navy. He passed these exams at 13 years of age and joined the naval training ship HMS Britannia at Dartmouth in 1881. Between then and 1889 he progressed through several promotions, first as a midshipman, then a sub-lieutenant, and finally a lieutenant.

The expedition included a long and treacherous journey on foot towards the South Pole which Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson undertook. This venture took them within 530 miles of the South Pole, further south than anyone had ever travelled before. Shackleton, on his first such trip, fell ill and had to return home early but was later to become a famous explorer in his own right. Scott went on to discover the Polar Plateau, returned a hero in 1904, and was promptly promoted to captain and awarded a number of medals and honours.

Scott spent some time doing lecture tours and writing up his report on the Discovery Expedition but then turned his attention to further exploration of the Antarctic. By 1906 the RGS had agreed to fund a second expedition largely for scientific purposes and Scott started preparations but, by this time he had, as Markham pointed out, been "bitten by the Pole mania”. On learning of Shackleton’s plans to return to the Antarctic in 1907, Scott was not overly pleased and the two exchanged some frosty communications, but Scott did attend the reception held to welcome Shackleton home in 1909, perhaps because the latter had not reached the South Pole himself after all.

The final push to the Pole began on 1st November 1911. The four men Scott chose to accompany him on the last leg of the journey were Lawrence Oates, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, and Edgar Evans. These five covered the inhospitable terrain in good time, finally reaching the South Pole on 17th January 1912, but were dismayed to discover that Amundsen had beaten them to it by over a month. Scott’s distress is evident from his diary entry: "The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected ... Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority."

Two days later the demoralised men began the 800-mile journey back. They had trudged for about half that distance through appalling weather when the first of the five, Edgar Evans, lost his life on 17th February after a second fall on the ice. The remaining four continued despite worsening conditions, suffering from hunger, exhaustion and frostbite. By 16th March Lawrence Oates could barely walk and did not want to slow his friends down. He famously left the tent where they had struck camp that day with the words, as recorded by Scott in his diary, “I am just going outside and may be some time”.

Despite Oates’ sacrifice, Scott, Wilson and Bowers made little further progress and set up their final camp on 19th March, 20 miles from where they had lost Oates. This camp was only 11 miles away from One Ton Depot but was 24 miles past the point it should have been had they stuck to their original plan of placing it at 80° S. Over the next 10 days a blizzard raged outside their tent and the three men were unable to make any advance at all as their supplies dwindled to nothing. Scott added a final entry to his diary on 29th March 1912 with the words “For God’s sake look after our people” and is presumed to have died on that date. When the tent was discovered eight months later, it appeared that Scott was the last of the three to die.

In later years, popular opinion changed as some biographers suggested Scott was incompetent rather than unlucky, and that his courage was tainted by carelessness. Even as recently as 2002, a poll to determine the 100 greatest Britons put Scott over halfway down the list at 54th (Shackleton was 11th). However, the tide has turned again as far as Scott is concerned and modern commentators view him much more positively, recognising that he made mistakes but emphasising his extraordinary bravery and his important contribution to scientific knowledge. Scott of the Antarctic, as he is fondly known, is once again a hero.