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LONDON - The last letters written by Antarctic explorer Robert Scott to his wife and young son before the adventurer died on his South Pole expedition are to go on display for the first time.
Addressing his final letter home to "my widow" Kathleen, the doomed explorer wrote:
"I shall not see you again - the inevitable must be faced.
"Dear, it is not easy to write because of the cold - 70 degrees below zero and nothing but the shelter of our tent. You know I have loved you," he wrote on scraps of his journal found in his tent when the team's bodies were recovered.
In the golden age of Antarctic exploration, Captain Scott has always been hailed for his heroism as the ill-fated "Race to the Pole" in 1912 went tragically wrong.
Battling blizzard conditions, Scott and his four-man team made it to the Pole only to discover that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it by a month.
On the long and demoralising journey back, Scott's party was overcome by the bad weather. He and his last two companions perished just 11 miles from their supply depot.
Staring death in the face as he wrote, Scott encouraged his wife to re-marry for the sake of their three-year-old son Peter, who became a renowned ornithologist and conservationist.
"I wouldn't have been a very good husband but I hope I shall be a good memory," he wrote. "Certainly the end is nothing for you to be ashamed of and I like to think that the boy will have a good start in parentage of which he may be proud."
Peter Scott's widow Philippa has decided to give the letters to the Scott Polar Research Institute, which was established at Cambridge University in the explorer's memory. They will go on display at the institute's museum from January 17.
"I was very, very moved when reading them," said curator Heather Lane. "He was very stoical. You get this sense of a man who has resigned himself to the fact that the fuel and food has gone. They are trapped in a blizzard and too weak to get out.
"The letters offer a very human face. Scott was at his most personal talking to Kathleen as if they were in the room together," she said.
As his father fought for survival, three-year-old Peter sent him two messages. "Dear Daddy I am going to be a drummer," said one. The other read simply "I love you."
Scott died of frostbite, malnutrition and exhaustion before the boy's letters could reach him.
- REUTERS
