The Daily Mirror dated Wednesday May 21st 1913
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We children of the 1950’s read about Scott of the
Antarctica, Clive of India, Gordon of Khartoum, Livingtone, Nelson and
Wellington in our Boys Own Book of British Heroes or in comic strip form in the
Eagle.
Robert Falcon Scott had led a previous expedition to
Antarctica using the ship Discovery (1901 – 1904) but the primary objective had
not been to get to the South Pole. In June 1910 Scott set sail again, this time
in the Terra Nova, and, after a stay in New Zealand, heavy storms and 20 days
ice-bound, they arrived to set up a base at Cape Evans in January 1911. They
were aware that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was camped along the coast
and was preparing to head for the South Pole.
Scott
and his party finally set out for the Pole on September 13th 1911
and reached their goal on January 17th 1912 only to find that
Amundsen had beaten them by 34 days. They left for home the next day but never
made it back to Cape Evans.
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The remaining members of the expedition who had
waited at Cape Evans set up a search party. They finally found the bodies of
Scott, Wilson and Bowers on November 12th 1912 and erected the
memorial shown on the front page. The Terra Nova arrived back in New Zealand in
February 1913.
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There is an obvious attempt here to salvage some glory from
the failed attempt to beat the foreigner Amundsen to the Pole by claiming Scott’s
party actually got to the real location and the Norwegians didn’t.
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Captain Lawrence Oates was just 32 years old when he walked
out into a blizzard with the words "I am just going outside and may be
some time".
Aware that his ill health was compromising his companions'
chances of survival he chose certain death. His body was never found.
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I can imagine Scott and his men huddled over cups of
steaming Oxo and North Pole explorer Robert Peary scribbling away in his diary
using a Koh-I-noor pencil but having Scott and Co laying Linola and admiring
its pattern and hygienic qualities while a blizzard is trying to rip the roof
off, is a bit harder to swallow.
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The close relationship between the British and German Royal
Families dates back to 1714 when, instead of a Stuart King James III, the Act
of Settlement gave us George of Brunswick the 1st Hanoverian King.
Kaiser
Wilhelm II was King George V’s cousin (Wilhelm’s mother was George’s father’s
sister). The coming of World War I only 14 months after this visit strained the
relationship and George, who had began his reign as a Saxe-Coburg thanks to his
grandmother Victoria marrying Albert of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha, changed the family name
to Windsor in 1917.
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As Germany built up her Navy in opening decade
of the 20th Century, the Royal Navy were worried and set about gathering
intelligence. In 1910 Lieutenant Brandon and Captain Trench were two spies that
got caught in Germany and were sentenced to 4 years in prison. Captain Bertrand
Stewart was caught spying while travelling in Germany in 1911. He was sentenced
to 3 years.
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Surely these are just the sort of items that would have
caught the attention of Sherlock Holmes if he hadn’t been too busy with his
bees. The Adventure of the Clean Motor-Goggles and The Adventure of the Silk
Hat. Read them first in The Strand Magazine.
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Leo Maxse was the editor of the Right Wing
magazine National Review and supporter of the National Party, a splinter group
who broke away from the Conservatives because they were too ‘liberal’. Maxse
was 49 in 1913 and had been brought up reading the old Victorian papers that
were predominantly solid blocks of type and reported such items as hour long political
speeches verbatim.
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Wanna see the Bunny Hug, the Turkey Trot and the Tango? Not
to mention the Castle Walk, Maxixe, Hesitation Waltz and The Toddle? Are you prepared to be shocked by the
outlandish behaviour of the young? Do you have the smelling salts ready? Watch this Youtube offering if you
dare.
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