Robert Falcon Scott - Waterloo Place, London, UK - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

This statue to Scott stands in Waterloo Place, London. It is a fitting location as statues to many other great British heroes have been erected here.

The statue stands about 5 metres in height from ground to the top of Scott's head. The lower part is a plinth, of just over 3 metres (10 feet) in height, made of granite on which there is an inscription on a bronze plaque. The plaque reads:

"Robert Falcon Scott / Captain Royal Navy / who with four companions / EA Wislon. HR Bowers. LEG Oates. E Evans / died March 1912 returning from the South Pole / 'Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell / of the hardihood endurance and courage / of my companions which would have stirred / the heart of every Englishman / these rough notes and / our dead bodies must tell the tale'"

The bronze statue that is lifesize shows Scott standing in his Antarctic clothing. In his right hand he holds a pole ad a bag tied around his waist. The statue was erected in 1915.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO (6 June 1868 – c29 March 1912) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. During this second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all perished from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

Before his appointment to lead the Discovery Expedition, Scott had followed the conventional career of a naval officer in peacetime Victorian Britain, where opportunities for career advancement were both limited and keenly sought after by ambitious officers. It was the chance for personal distinction that led Scott to apply for the Discovery command, rather than any predilection for polar exploration. However, having taken this step, his name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic, the field of work to which he remained committed during the final twelve years of his life.

Following the news of his death, Scott became an iconic British hero, a status maintained for more than 50 years and reflected by the many permanent memorials erected across the nation. In the closing decades of the 20th century, the legend was reassessed as attention focused on the causes of the disaster that ended his and his comrades' lives, and the extent of Scott's personal culpability. From a previously unassailable position, Scott became a figure of controversy, with questions raised about his competence and character. Commentators in the 21st century have on the whole regarded Scott more positively, emphasising his personal bravery and stoicism while acknowledging his errors, but ascribing his expedition's fate primarily to misfortune.

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