Scott letters go on display
Captain Robert Scott's expedition failed in 1912
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Wednesday, 10, Jan 2007 05:32
The final letters written by one of Britain's most renowned explorers are to go on public display.
Despite them being incredibly valuable on the private market, the family of the Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Scott have decided to pass the letters on to Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute.
There they will be available for public perusal from January 17th, detailing the explorer and his team's dramatic last days in March 1912.
Captain Scott, knowing the mission was doomed, addressed his last letter to "my widow" and told his wife Kathleen and his young son: "I shall not see you again - the inevitable must be faced".
The bodies of the South Pole explorers were found in 1913, after the team died from the cold.
Heather Lane of the institute said her organisation is "absolutely delighted" that the "very, very moving" letters had been passed on.
"They've been with the family ever since they returned from the Antarctic and handed to Kathleen who had them bound in a letter book and the family has kept them up until the present day," she told the Today programme.
"They've taken the decision very recently that they should come to the institute and be placed in the archive along with all of our other materials on Scott.
"We're absolutely delighted that they've taken this decision and we're very pleased indeed to be able to put them on public display for the first time."
She added that the centenary of Scott's attainment of the Pole would be marked in 2012.