SCOTT (ROBERT FALCON)

The highly important farewell autograph letter signed ("R. Scott"), to Sir Edgar Speyer ("My dear Sir Edgar"), "Lat 79.50S. March 16", [1912]

Footnotes

'WE HAVE BEEN TO THE POLE AND WE SHALL DIE LIKE GENTLEMEN': THE FIRST OF THE FAREWELL LETTERS WRITTEN BY SCOTT ON HIS DOOMED EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH POLE AND FOUND WITH HIS BODY BY THE RESCUE PARTY - THE LAST KNOWN TO BE IN PRIVATE HANDS.

AN IMPORTANT AND ICONIC RELIC OF THE HEROIC AGE OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Addressed to Sir Edgar Speyer, the expedition's treasurer, this is seemingly the earliest, and one of the longest, of Scott's farewell letters written to close friends, supporters and relatives of those who died with him on the ill-fated British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913, just a few miles from the nearest supply depot.

Our letter is written on 16 March 1912 and is the only letter in the series to give his exact geographical position ("Lat 79.50S."). It perhaps marks a turning point in the fate of the expedition, the moment when Scott fully realised that the Polar party would never return. As he records in his journal: 'Friday, March 16 or Saturday 17. – Lost track of dates, but think the last correct. Tragedy all along the line... the day before yesterday, poor Titus Oates said he couldn't go on; he proposed we should leave him in his sleeping-bag. That we could not do, and induced him to come on, on the afternoon march... At night he was worse and we knew the end had come... We can testify to his bravery... He did not – would not – give up hope to the very end... He said, 'I am just going outside and may be some time'. He went out into the blizzard and we have not seen him since'. By 21 March Scott, together with his remaining companions, Dr Edward Wilson and Lieutenant Henry Robertson "Birdie" Bowers, had struggled onwards to within eleven miles of supplies of food and fuel awaiting them at One Ton Depot, but could go no further. For eight days the tent was shaken by a gale-force blizzard. Scott, '...immured in the tent with the temperature at minus 40 degrees F.... wrote letters of farewell to the two women who meant most to him, his wife and his mother, and to the wives and mothers of those who, like him, would never return, to old Admiralty colleagues, to the Expedition Treasurer, to J.M. Barrie...' (Pound, R., Scott of the Antarctic, London, 1966, p.229).

In his last entry, written on the 29th, Scott wrote '...We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far... I do not think I can write more...'. Eight months later, on November 12, a search party led by Lieutenant Atkinson, the expedition's surgeon, found the men's tent: 'Wilson and Bowers were found in the attitude of sleep, their sleeping-bags closed over their heads as they would naturally close them. Scott died later. He had thrown back the flaps of his sleeping-bag and opened his coat. The little wallet containing the three notebooks [which included this letter] was under his shoulders and his arm flung across Wilson...' (Scott's Last Expedition, 1913, Vol. 1, p.596.)

As Horatio Nelson in his last will commended the fate of Emma Hamilton and their child Horatia to King and Country, the final words of the dying Scott in his diary, '...For God's sake look after our people...', are a heartfelt plea that resounds throughout these final letters. Not only does he fear for the future of the widows and children left behind, Scott is intent on making sure that the legacy of the expedition was not to be seen as one of failure, but of bravery and strength of spirit: '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...' he wrote in his final Message to the Public, '...but surely, surely a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for...' (Scott's last diary, British Library, Add MS 51035). In these last letters his 'handwriting is strikingly clear and decisive. It was as if... he realized that it was his sovereign vocation to show men how to die. With Wilson and Bowers already dead beside him, he lay in the tent alone, probably conscious for another day, or more... Outside, the abating gale sobbed and sighed like lamentation music' (Pound, p.304).

This was Scott's second attempt on the Pole, following the British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition of 1901-1904, undertaken with Ernest Shackleton who in 1907 embarked on his own famously unsuccessful attempt. With the backing of Sir Clements Markham and a consortium of benefactors led by the recipient of our letter, Sir Edgar Speyer, the Terra Nova left for the Antarctic on 10 June 1910. After berthing at Lyttleton in New Zealand, they embarked on their expedition in November and a year later the expedition party began the final push for the Pole. On 4 January 1912 the support party returned to camp, and Scott proceeded onwards with four companions: Wilson, Bowers, Captain Lawrence 'Titus' Oates and Petty Officer Edgar 'Taff' Evans. They reached the South Pole on 18 January 1912 but in subdued mood ('We built a cairn, put up our poor slighted Union Jack, and photographed ourselves – cold work all of it... Well, we have turned our back now on the goal of our ambition and must face our 800 miles of solid dragging...'). Just two days earlier they had found the remnants of a camp left by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition and with it, the shattering realisation that they were not to be the first to the Pole. It was a terrible disappointment – 'I am very sorry for my loyal companions', Scott wrote, 'All the day dreams must go; it will be a wearisome return...' (Tuesday 16 January). The return journey is described in harrowing detail in Scott's journal, chronicling the decline of his men's health, the deteriorating conditions, the dwindling supplies of food and fuel ('First panic, certainty that biscuit box was short', 7 February), and the lack of sleep. On 17 February, Evans collapsed and died of frostbite and exhaustion. From then on things got progressively worse, leading to those final days so well documented in Scott's journal and in the final letters.

"I write to many friends hoping the letters will reach them"

The Text of the Letter:

"My dear Sir Edgar,
I hope this may reach you - I fear we must go and that it leaves the Expedition in a bad muddle - But we have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen - I regret only for the women we leave behind – I thank you a thousand times for your help & support and your generous kindness – If this diary is found it will show how we stuck by dying companions and fought this thing out well to the end - I think this will show that the spirit of pluck & the power to endure has not passed out of the race - If recognition of this fact can be given by people will you please do your best to have our people looked after those dependent on us I have my wife and child to think of. The wife is a very independent person but the country ought not to let my boy want an education & a future. I am quite sure you will do your best to see this provision made & strike while the iron is hot. Wilson the best fellow that ever stepped who has sacrificed himself again & again to the sick men of the party leaves a widow entirely destitute. Surely something ought to be done for her and for the humbler widow of Edgar Evans. I write to many friends hoping the letters will reach them some time after we are found next year. We very nearly came through and it's a pity to have missed it, but lately I have felt that we have overshot our mark -- no one is to blame and I hope no attempt will be made to suggest that we lacked support – Goodbye to you and your dear kind wife.
Yours sincerely
R Scott"

"I thank you a thousand times for your help & support and your generous kindness"

The recipient of our letter, Sir Edgar Speyer (1862-1932) was a wealthy New York-born financier and philanthropist, who had come to London in 1887 as director of his father's finance company, Speyer Brothers. Speyer became naturalised in 1892 and headed an international consortium that raised £15 million to electrify the Metropolitan District Railway and construct three deep tube lines. He became chairman of Underground Electric Railways of London Ltd in 1902, thus earning him the soubriquet 'King of the Underground'. His "dear kind wife", as Scott calls her, was Leonora, daughter of Ferdinand Count von Stosch of Mantze, a professional violinist, and the couple lived in magnificent style: '...At his home in Grosvenor Street there were many concerts, at several of which Richard Strauss [Speyer was the dedicatee of Strauss' Salome] and Debussy conducted their own works. Speyer also took a lively interest in philanthropic and cultural causes. He was on the board of King Edward's Hospital Fund, president of Poplar Hospital, and a trustee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery...' (Theo Barker, ODNB), and also credited with saving the beleaguered Promenade Concerts from collapse.

Speyer was a generous donor to both of Scott's expeditions. He personally put up £5,000 towards the costs of rescuing the Discovery party when their ship was marooned in the ice, and Mount Speyer on the western side of the Ross Ice Shelf was named in his honour. As a result, Speyer and Scott became close friends. He was the Terra Nova expedition's most generous single donor, contributing the sum of £1,000, served as Honorary Treasurer of the expedition fund and was amongst the small crowd of well-wishers who saw Scott off at Waterloo station. Not only that, he took on the liabilities of the expedition, although this was eventually covered by money raised by public donations. After the tragic news was announced to the general public on 12 February 1913, messages of condolence streamed in from all parts of the globe – '...a renown that could hardly have been his even had he succeeded in his greatest ambition as an explorer... Scott's death ranked him with the leading men of the age...' (Pound, p.310). Spurred on by Scott's private letters such as ours to influential friends and the release of his public message, donations flooded in and the Scott Memorial Appeal Fund, of which Speyer was a leading fundraiser, was able to fulfil Scott's last wishes. The Fund not only assisted the dependants of the exploration team financially, but also commissioned suitable monuments to their achievements and, crucially, raised enough funds to endow the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. A plaque recognising Speyer's philanthropic work was unveiled at the Institute in October 2014, which celebrated its centenary in 2020.

During the First World War, however, Speyer met a spectacular fall from grace, accused of pro-German sympathies and ostracised by society and the press. The family returned to New York in 1915, his privy counsellorship and naturalisation revoked under the Aliens Act in 1921. This controversial figure has recently been given greater recognition through Professor Anthony Lentin's biography, Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy? The Troublesome Case of Sir Edgar Speyer, published in 2013.

"The wife is a very independent person but the country ought not to let my boy want an education & a future"

Scott's wife, Kathleen, hitherto ignorant of the fact that she was now a widow of eleven months, heard the news of her husband's fate on board the mail steamer Aorangi, whilst en route to Wellington, New Zealand, where she was intending to meet him on his return from the Pole. She had no inkling of the rescue party and the finding of the bodies, the impressive memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral attended by the King on 14 February 1913, or the extensive press coverage and speculation surrounding the expedition. On her return to England, Scott's final wishes as to her future welfare were to be realised. From the government she received an annuity of £300 with an additional £25 for her son until he turned eighteen. The dependents of those who perished also enjoyed substantial amounts from the Memorial Fund – from £8,500 to Lady Scott down to £1,250 to the widow of Petty Officer Edgar Evans. Scott's mother and sisters received £6,000 and his son Peter was provided with a maintenance grant until the age of 25.

Our letter was partly published in Scott's Last Expedition, 1913, Vol. 1, p.600 and in the 2005 edition, edited by Max Jones, p.417. It is published in full in Lane, H., Boneham, N., Smith, R.D. (eds.), The Last Letters, The British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13, SPRI, 2012, pp.36-43, where it is also illustrated.

Included in the lot is a typed speech with further pencilled notes, presumably in the hand of Speyer, a tribute to Scott on the occasion of placing a wreath on his memorial at Christ Church, New Zealand, 25 November 1928: "...He showed that the way a man plays the game can be more important than the winning of the game... when his body was gone, he calmly and simply wrote the words that will make his memory helpful for all time..."; together with a photocopy of an article from the New York Times, 6 December 1935, describing the presentation of our letter to Rear Admiral Richard Byrd, the pioneering American aviator and polar explorer. In aviation Byrd had made a valuable contribution to the field of aerial navigation and to the early attempts at transatlantic flight. As a polar explorer, he claimed that his expeditions were the first to reach the North Pole and South Pole by air, although the former is now disputed and the subject of some controversy. He is, however, credited with discovering Mount Sidley, the largest dormant volcano in Antarctica, and received the Medal of Honor, the highest honour for valour given by the United States.

Provenance: Sir Edgar Speyer (1862-1932); presented by Speyer's widow to Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) at a dinner held in his honour at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York on 5 December 1935; Marie A. Byrd; Sotheby's, 15 December 1988, lot 157; Richard Manney; Bonhams, 20 March 2012, lot 171; UK private collection.

"We very nearly came through and it's a pity to have missed it"

Locations of the Farewell Letters:

Private Collection:
To Sir Edgar Speyer, the present letter

Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge:
To his wife, Kathleen – gifted by Lady Philippa Scott in 2006 – SPRI: MS 1835/381a
To Mrs E. A. Wilson – SPRI: MS 2093
To Mrs Bowers – SPRI: MS 1505/7/2/17
To Reginald & Mrs Smith – SPRI: MS 850/1/8
To Vice Admiral Sir George le Clerc Egerton, KCB – SPRI: MS 175
To Vice Admiral Francis Charles Bridgeman KCVO, KCB – SPRI: MS 2220

British Library, London:
To the Public, in his last diary – British Library Add. MS 51035

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand:
To Sir Joseph James Kinsey – MS-Papers-0022-66, transcript with SPRI, MS 100/101 and MS 1375

Location Presently Unknown:
To J.M. Barrie – transcript with SPRI, MS 1453/163
To his mother – extracts published in Scott's Last Expedition: The Personal Journals of Captain R. Scott, R.N., C.V.O. on his Journey to the South Pole, John Murray, 1923
To his brother-in-law, Sir William Ellison Macartney – extracts published in Scott's Last Expedition
To Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont – extracts published in Scott's Last Expedition