Scott, Robert Falcon

Scott, Robert Falcon (1868-1912), explorer, b. Devonport, Devon, England.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott joined the Royal Navy as a boy.

In 1901-03 he led an expedition to the Antarctic in the Discovery. On this expedition, with Dr. Edward Wilson and Ernest Shackleton, he marched over the ice to 82 degrees 17 minutes South, 404 miles (650 kilometers) from the South Pole - the farthest south reached by anyone up to this time.

In 1910, he set out for the Antarctic again in the Terra Nova. This time he planned to reach the South Pole and he did.

With four companions, Dr. Edward Wilson, Captain Lawrence Oates, Petty Officer Edgar Evans and Lieutenant Henry Bowers he stood at the South Pole on 18 January, 1912. But the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, had got there first over one month earlier.

On the return march of 907 miles (1,450 kilometers) Scott and his companions ran into bad weather and, one by one, they all died. Scott's diary was found later and in it was the story of their brave struggle.

Scott's ship, the Discovery, can be seen today at the Polar museum based at Discovery Point in Dundee, and there is a statue of him in Waterloo Place, London.

Sir Peter Scott, the artist and bird expert, is Captain Scott's son.

See Captain Scott ~ Sir Ranulph Fiennes