Robert Falcon Scott - London, UK
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 51° 30.415 W 000° 07.913
30U E 699035 N 5710098
Robert Falcon Scott, well-known for his expeditions to the Antarctic, was a Royal Navy officer.
Waymark Code: WME0FE
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/17/2012
Views: 9
This 1915 statue of Scott is located in Waterloo Place. It depicts the explorer in his Antarctic outfit holding a pole with his right hand. The piece was sculpted by Scott's wife, British artist Kathleen Scott.
The plaque on the plinth 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'"
Wikipedia (
visit link) further informs us that Scott:
"...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."