The story of a Leeds polar explorer who made the ultimate act of self-sacrifice
He was the polar explorer who made the ultimate act of self-sacrifice.
Captain Laurence Edward Oates was a British army officer turned explorer who would often visit to Meanwoodside, the family home in Leeds.
He was part of the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913 and led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
The team finally the Pole in January 1912 only to discover a tent that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his four-man team had left behind at their Polheim camp, after beating them in the race to the Pole.
Inside the tent was a note from Amundsen informing them that his party had reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, beating Scott's party by 35 days.
Oates and the 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.
By March 1912, Oates told his companions that he could not go on and proposed that they leave him in his sleeping bag, which they refused to do. He managed a few more miles that day but his condition worsened that night.
According to Scott's diary entry of 16 or 17 March - Scott was unsure of the date but thought 17 March correct - Oates had walked out of the tent the previous day into a -40°F (−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."
Oates's body was never found. Near where he was presumed to have died, the search party erected a cairn and cross bearing the inscription: "Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L. E. G. Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard, to try and save his comrades, beset by hardships."
There is a plaque dedicated to the life and memory of Captain Oates in Leeds Minster on Kirkgate.