THE wife of doomed Antarctic explorer Captain Scott urged him to reach the South Pole or die trying in a letter that was found in his breast pocket.
The poignant missive from Kathleen Scott, which has only just been made public, said her husband should sacrifice everything in pursuit of his goal without thought for her and their son, Peter.
It was found on the adventurer's body in a pocket close to his heart, having been carried with him on his 1912 quest to the South Pole.
Scott, and fellow explorers Edgar Evans, Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates and Henry Bowers, died on the return journey from the centre of the Antarctic.
The bodies of Scott and two party members were found in a tent pitched just 11 miles from a depot which would have given them fresh supplies.
The group had made it to the Pole only to find they had been beaten by the Norweigan explorer Roald Amundsen, who arrived five weeks earlier.
In the final pencil-written letter to her husband, Kathleen says: "Look you – when you are away south I want you to be sure that if there be a risk to take or leave, you will take it, or if there is a danger for you or another man to face, it will be you who face it, just as much as before you met Doodles [the couple's pet name for their son] and me.
"Because man dear we can do without you please know for sure we can.
"God knows I love you more than I thought could be possible, but I want you to realise it wouldn't be your physical life that would profit me and Doodles most."
It continued: "If there's anything you think of doing at the cost of your life – do it. We shall only be glad.
"Do you understand me? How awful if you don't."
A sculptress who studied under August Rodin, Kathleen Scott was known as a free-spirited bohemian who moved in celebrity circles. Biographers say her devotion to her husband was genuine, and the couple were said to have been fiercely in love.
However, rumours have persisted that at the time of Scott's expedition she was conducting an affair with the Norweigan explorer Fridtjoft Nansen, who was the mentor of Roald Amundsen.
Her letter is published in a new book which details the lives of the wives of explorers and is written by Keri Herbert, daughter of the first man to walk to the North Pole, Wally Herbert.
Speaking of her book, titled Heart of the Hero, she said: "The explorers, their managers and their publicists got all the credit but the women carried a huge amount of the responsibility."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article