Robert Falcon Scott
British naval officer and Antarctic explorer who reached the South Pole.
Last updated
Steffano Francis Webb · Public domain
Scott and his entire polar party died on the return journey, approximately 12.5 miles from their next depot.[1][2] Robert Falcon Scott served as an officer in the Royal Navy before being chosen to lead the Discovery Expedition.[3] Scott's five-man party arrived at the South Pole on 17 January 1912, discovering that Amundsen's expedition had reached it five weeks earlier.[1][4]
Life and work
Scott was born on 6 June 1868 in Stoke Damerel, near Devonport, the third of six children.[5] The party's bodies were discovered on 12 November 1912 by a search party.[6][7] Following news of his death, Scott became a celebrated hero across the UK.[8][9] Scott passed the entrance exams and became a naval cadet at age 13 in 1881.[10]
After a chance meeting in London with Sir Clements Markham in June 1899, Scott volunteered to command the upcoming Antarctic expedition.[3][11] The search party found 35 lb of Glossopteris tree fossils beside the bodies, which were the first Antarctic fossils ever discovered.[6][12]
What the cited sources add
The BBC account notes that Scott's expedition collected over 2,000 animal specimens, 400 of which were newly discovered.[12] A 1907 letter from Scott to bookshop owner Edward Stanford complained that a map showing "Scott and Shackleton" implied "dual leadership" which was "not in accordance with fact."[13][14] Gran recorded that Scott "seems to have struggled hard in the moment of death."[7] The Terra Nova ship eventually sank in 1943 while carrying supplies to US bases during World War Two.[15]
Scott's journal entry posted by the Scott Polar Research Institute includes the plea "For God's sake look after our people."[16]
References
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Antarctic Fossils Expeditions", expeditions.fieldmuseum.org; "Four things Captain Scott found in Antarctica", BBC (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "My right foot has gone, nearly all the toes—two days ago I was proud possessor of best feet. These are the steps of my downfall. Like an ass I mixed a small sp (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Crane 2005, p. 82 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Captain Scott's famous polar shipwreck as never seen before", BBC News, 3 September 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Crane 2005, p. 82; Crane 2005, p. 82; "Scott's Expedition", American Museum of Natural History (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Flood, "Antarctic diary records horror at finding Captain Scott's body", The Guardian, 12 December 2018; Huxley 1913b, p. 345–347; Coyne, "Why Evolution is True", Penguin Group, 2010, p. 99; "Antarctic Fossils Expeditions", expeditions.fieldmuseum.org (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Flood, "Antarctic diary records horror at finding Captain Scott's body", The Guardian, 12 December 2018. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: May 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Crane 2005, p. 82; Preston 1999, p. 28–29; Jones 2003, p. 126 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fiennes 2003, p. 17; "LADY ELLISON-MACARTNEY", The Mercury, 2 April 1913, p. 5 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Robert Falcon Scott" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Crane 2005, p. 82; Crane 2005, p. 82 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Four things Captain Scott found in Antarctica", BBC. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
- "Antarctic explorer Scott's letter of complaint about rival Shackleton to go on display in exhibition", Evening Standard, 15 October 2019. facts only, no text reused. standard.co.uk
- Hoare, "Antarctica discovery: Century-old letter reveals shock find after first exploration", Express, 17 October 2019. facts only, no text reused. express.co.uk
- "Captain Scott's famous polar shipwreck as never seen before", BBC News, 3 September 2025. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
- "Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge » Scott's Last Expedition", www.spri.cam.ac.uk. facts only, no text reused. spri.cam.ac.uk
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Robert Falcon Scott (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Robert Falcon Scott (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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