17 March 1880: Birth of Lawrence Oates, British Explorer

Lawrence Edward Grace Oates was born on 17 March 1880 at Putney, London, one of the four children of William and Caroline Oates. He was privately educated after ill health cut short his attendance at Eton College after two years.

Oates joined the 3rd West Yorkshire (militia) regiment in 1898 and then served with the 6th (Inniskilling) dragoons in South Africa from 1900. He was wounded on 6 March 1901 by a shot to his thigh but recovered and continued his career in Ireland, Egypt and India. Oates was promoted to captain in 1906 while in Egypt.

In 1910 Oates joined Captain Robert Scott’s second expedition to the Antarctic. His role was to supervise the care of the ponies that were to haul the supplies over the Antarctic ice. Oates was not consulted about the selection of the animals, however, and was disappointed with the nineteen ponies purchased in Siberia.

During January and February 1911 the ponies struggled in their task of transporting supplies to stores at regular intervals on the route to the south pole. In the winter that followed Oates tried to build up the strength of the ponies for the coming polar attempt.

The expedition team set out from their base camp on 1 November 1911 knowing that they were in a race to the south pole against Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian party. The ponies were only able to haul supplies so far and the last of them had to be shot on 9 December.

On 3 January 1912 a five-man team was chosen to undertake the final stage of the trek to the south pole. The team members were Scott, Oates, Henry Bowers, Edgar Evans and Edward Wilson. The remaining members of the expedition team turned back.

Fifteen days later, on 18 January 1912, the five men reached their goal only to find evidence that Amundsen’s team had beaten them to the pole on 14 December 1911. Successful in their quest, but disappointed at being second, the team set off on the journey back to base camp.

But injuries and the weather were to cause problems for the remainder of their journey. Evans died on 17 February, possibly from injuries caused by a fall a few days earlier, and Oates was suffering from frostbitten feet. By 10 March it was obvious to the four remaining explorers that Oates had little chance of surviving.

The team urged Oates to continue even though his speed of travel was dangerous to their collective survival. On 15 March Oates suggested that he should be left behind in his sleeping bag but the others would not agree to this.

He struggled on for the rest of that day, but on the morning of 16 March 1912 Oates left the tent alone, into a blizzard and a temperature of -40ºC, saying, according to Scott’s diary, “I am just going outside and may be some time.” His body was never found.

His sacrifice was in vain, however, as Scott, Bowers and Wilson continued on for only another eighteen miles over the next three days before they were forced to stop. They died in their tent ten days later.

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