Heroic recalcitrance

Laurence Oates British Antarctic explorer is most famous for his final words during Captain Scott’s doomed expedition to the South pole: "I am just going outside and may be some time”.

However, we have no proof that he said this. The words were recorded by Captain Scott in his diary. For many this is sufficient evidence. However, the two men despised each other. Do we know the full truth?

Oates was born into a wealthy Putney family in 1880 and lived in a house on this site from age of five to 11.

As a young soldier he was recommended for the Victoria Cross for his acts of military stubbornness. He saw active service during the Second Boer War in South Africa and refused to surrender twice, saying "We came to fight, not to surrender." His actions brought him public notoriety.

Having continued his military career in Ireland, Egypt, and India, in 1910, he applied to join Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to the South Pole. He was accepted on the strength of his experience with horses and his ability to make a financial contribution of £1,000. Based on a 2018 approximation this would have equalled £110,000.

Oates’ role was to look after 19 ponies that Scott intended to use for sledge hauling during the initial food depot-laying stage and the first half of the trip to the South Pole. Scott eventually selected him as one of the five-man party who would travel the final distance to the Pole.

Oates disagreed with Scott many times on management of the expedition. 'Their natures jarred on one another,' a fellow expedition member recalled. When he first saw the ponies that Scott had brought on the expedition, Oates was horrified at the £5 animals, which he said were too old for the job and 'a wretched load of crocks. He later said: 'Scott's ignorance about marching with animals is colossal.' He also wrote in his diary "Myself, I dislike Scott intensely and would chuck the whole thing if it were not that we are a British expedition.”

79 days after starting their journey, Scott’s five-man party finally reached the Pole only to discover a tent that Norwegian explorer Roald Admunsen had left behind 35 days before.

Scott's party faced extremely difficult conditions on the return journey, mainly due to the exceptionally adverse weather, poor food supply, injuries sustained from falls, and the effects of scurvy and frostbite.

Oates' feet had become severely frostbitten and his slower progress was causing the party to fall behind schedule.

On 17th March 1912 Oates walked out of the tent into a 40 °C blizzard to his death. Scott wrote in his diary: "We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman."[ According to Scott's diary, as Oates left the tent he said, "I am just going outside and may be some time”.

The remaining three men continued for a further 20 miles towards the food depot that could save them but they were halted by a fierce blizzard. Trapped in their tent they died nine days later, eleven miles short of their objective. Their frozen bodies were discovered by a search party on 12 November 1912.

Oates' body was never found.

So was his death an act of self-sacrifice, or was Scott covering his tracks?