Lawrence oates death
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Antarctic mission: Who was Captain Lawrence Oates?
But Capt Oates commended Amundsen's team: "I must say that man must have had his head screwed on right. The gear they left was in excellent order and they seem to have had a comfortable trip with their dog teams, very different from our wretched man-hauling."
The men began their difficult journey back but the freezing conditions led to Capt Oates's big toe turning black and his body turning an unhealthy yellow colour.
Maj Gen Cordingley said: "His feet had been giving him trouble for two months but he had hidden his problem from the others. Now this was no longer possible."
Capt Scott wrote in his diary: "If we were all fit I should have hopes of getting through, but the poor soldier has become a terrible hindrance, thought he does his utmost and suffers much I fear."
Explorers knew the risks, that there would be no evacuation in cases of serious illness or injury. As team member Apsley Cherry-Garrard wrote in his account of the expedition: "There is no chance of a 'cushy'
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Captain Lawrence Oates: Antarctic tragedy
15th March, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, History
By Michael Smith
‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’
Most people will know that these simple words, so famous and so often repeated over the past decades, were uttered by Captain Lawrence Oates who, according to legend, gallantly gave his life to help save his comrades in an Antarctic blizzard during Captain Scott’s tragic last expedition. There are few phrases in the English language that are so instantly recognisable or so enduring, or that capture the imagination to such an extent. From the moment that his tragic words and the circumstances of his death arrived in the public domain in 1913, Oates became a symbol of gallantry and heroism and a national icon.
Oates was at centre stage of the Scott disaster and the expedition’s most unfortunate victim. It was a tragedy which left such an impression on the national psyche that 100,000 British soldiers, who themselves were staring death in the face from the trenches of the First World War, were sh
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Lawrence Oates
British explorer (1880–1912)
"Captain Oates" redirects here. For other uses, see Captain Oats (disambiguation).
Lawrence Oates | |
|---|---|
Oates, c. 1911 | |
| Born | Lawrence Edward Grace Oates (1880-03-17)17 March 1880 Putney, Surrey, England |
| Died | 17 March 1912(1912-03-17) (aged 32) Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
| Cause of death | Hypothermia[1] |
| Other names | Titus Oates |
| Education | Eton College |
| Occupation(s) | Cavalry officer, explorer |
Lawrence Edward Grace "Titus" Oates (17 March 1880 – 17 March 1912)[2] was a British army officer, and later an Antarctic explorer, who died from hypothermia[1] during the Terra Nova Expedition when he walked from his tent into a blizzard. His death, which occurred on his 32nd birthday, is seen as an act of self-sacrifice when, aware that the gangrene and frostbite from which he was suffering was compromising his three companions' chances of survival, he chose certain death for himself to relieve them of the burden of caring for him.
Early
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