Cheltenham College

This was the school that Wilson attended from 1886 for four years.

In the College Chapel (not open to the public) there is the commemorative stained-glass ‘Fortitude Window’, one panel of which depicts Wilson as an Antarctic explorer. A memorial tablet, also in the chapel, has the following inscription:
In memory of Edward Adrian Wilson, Physician, Zoologist, Artist, and Explorer, born 23rd July 1872, a member of this College from 1886 to 1891. A keen observer of Nature. A wise and trusted friend. Gentle and God-fearing. Strong, simple, and sincere. He accompanied Captain Scott on both his Antarctic Expeditions; with him he reached the South Pole on 18th January, 1912; and with him he died on Ross Ice Barrier about March 27th, 1912.

There is also a memorial tablet to Ted’s ‘Uncle Charlie’ – Major-General Sir Charles Wilson (1836–1905) – another old Cheltonian and a famous explorer in the Middle East.

Ted had fond memories of his old school and was later to return here to lecture on the Discovery expedition and also to give the occasional sermon. He shared an appreciation of the ‘delicate tracery of the College chapel’ with his father who, sleeping in his son’s room at Westal on 17 December 1896, was suddenly awakened by a violent earthquake and later wondered how the College Chapel had withstood the strain while the pinnacles of Hereford Cathedral had been badly damaged.

Continue along Bath Road and turn left into Thirlestaine Road, and then left again into College Lawn.