From Ice Floes to Battlefields

by Anne Strathie

  Commanders Evans and Campbell, with Dr. Atkinson and other member of the expedition of 1910–1913, as well as Lady Scott, point out that, whatever the attractions of Mr. Stackhouse’s enterprise, they know of no plans for exploration of this coast which were proposed by Captain Scott other than those to be undertaken by himself or by his lieutenants. The officers of the expedition of 1910–1913 protest against the use of their leader’s name in a way for which they know of no authority given by Captain Scott.

  Stackhouse, in response, maintained that he had discussed his project with Scott and was in the process of acquiring the Discovery, from which Scott had first seen King Edward VII Land. When Pennell declined to respond further the correspondence petered out.

  On 22 November Pennell, Campbell, Levick and Meares joined other guests at the wedding of Wilfred Bruce and Dorothy, elder daughter of Sir Jesse Boot, the millionaire owner of a nationwide chain of some 500 pharmacies.47 Henry Rennick, in his role as best man, and Bruce were both in full dress uniform, as were the members of a naval guard of honour. The reception took place at the Langham Hotel, where one of the highlights of the table displays was a wedding cake topped with a model of the Terra Nova.

  On 27 November the postman delivered an envelope with a Swiss postal mark to Pennell:48

  Katie’s letter came accepting me, which only needed a telegram to make us engaged. Dear little girl I am afraid it is a bigger step for her than for me. It’s only on an occasion like this that one gets an idea of how ones messmates feel towards one, they have all written the most kind letters a man could receive.

  On 11 December a notice in The Times confirmed that Harry Pennell and Katie Hodson were indeed engaged to be married.49

  Katie and her parents were still in Switzerland, but Pennell was already looking forward to his visit to them early in the New Year. In the meantime, he kept busy. He took his sister Dorothy to see an exhibition of Edward Wilson’s drawings and watercolours at the Alpine Club and Ponting’s photographs at the Fine Art Society in Bond Street.50 They also went to see a new production of Quality Street, an early play by Scott’s friend J.M. Barrie. Pennell thought the production was ‘very pretty’ but found the story of two sisters running a school to be ‘a little sad … [and] for women between 30 & 40 almost distressing’. Dorothy, who was unmarried, was fortunately a nurse by profession.

  Before the residents of 15 Queen Anne Street went their separate ways for Christmas, Atkinson and James Wyatt took Pennell out for dinner, a performance of The Great Adventure and post-theatre supper at the Piccadilly Restaurant.

  Back in Awliscombe Pennell enjoyed his first ‘home Christmas’ for years. Gerry Hodson came down for a few days to join Pennell and his mother and sisters in the celebrations. Pennell felt that the ‘Irish Question’ cast something of a cloud over the New Year, but, with his engagement to Katie Hodson now confirmed and a holiday in Switzerland and a new naval posting in the offing, 1914 seemed full of promise.

  Notes

  1. MS433, 13 March 1913, which covers from 7 February (landing at Oamaru) to leaving for Britain in April; Terra Nova Arrives at Oamaru (www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/night-watchmans-hut-oamaru, Ministry for Culture and Heritage) is one of many other accounts of the landing.

  2. Opinions vary as to the number of cables sent from Oamaru and/or Christchurch to London. Pennell refers to one to Kinsey from Oamaru and one to Central News Agency (CNA) from Kinsey’s Christchurch office; the report co-authored by Pennell and Evans (Scott’s Last Expedition, Vol II, pp. 359–407) refers to a ‘Commander’s cable’ from Oamaru to CNA and one encoded cable from Christchurch; Kinsey refers to subsequent cables sent from his office; Jones (The Last Great Quest, chapter 4) suggests three cables; historian David Harrowfield of Oamaru, New Zealand, also refers to a series of cables.

  3. Scott wrote to Kinsey on 28 October 1911 (Kinsey papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington) suggesting he did not want Evans to be in charge of the expedition in the event of Scott being delayed (see also Wheeler, Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, p. 132). The situation regarding leadership was overtaken by events, including Evans’ scurvy and promotion and Scott’s death.

  4. New Zealand newspaper reports, 7 March 1913.

  5. MS433, 4–21 March 1913.

  6. The expression ‘splice the main brace’ is used colloquially to mean allowing an extra drink but refers to a difficult repair sometimes needed on sailing ships, following which those involved would be rewarded with an extra ‘tot’.

  7. MS433, 28 March 1913.

  8. MS433, 8 April 1913.

  9. Pennell to Atkinson, April 1913, RGS/HLP/2/5.

  10. MS433, 15–26 April 1913.

  11. MS433, 1 May 1913.

  12. Sir Roger Casement, who served as a diplomat in Africa and South America, was investigating malpractices by a British-registered company operating rubber plantations in Peru. He left the diplomatic service later in 1913 to concentrate on obtaining independence for Ireland.

  13. Sir William Haggard was the elder brother of Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mine and other popular books of the time.

  14. MS433, 5 May 1913.

  15. MS433, 18 May to 1 June 1913.

  16. MS433, 4 June 1913.

  17. MS433, 6 July 1913.

  18. 24 June is the feast day of St John the Baptist.

  19. Henry Lyons (1864–1944) was also a member of the RGS and a Fellow of the Royal Society; he went on to serve as temporary director of the Meteorological Officer and Director of the Science Museum, in which role he sought to make the museum more accessible to children and non-scientists.

  20. The Times, 1 July 1913.

  21. MS433, 6 August 1913.

  22. The Times, 27 June 1913, refers to a ball of the previous evening (i.e. 26 June); Pennell’s journal entry (6 July) suggests 23 June but no reference to a similar ball that week has been traced. The fact that Pennell’s name was not listed in The Times suggests only that he was not on a guest list issued by the palace before he returned to Britain.

  23. The four-act play, first performed in March 1913, was adapted from Bennett’s own novel Buried Alive. The plot is centred on a world-famous but shy painter who takes on the identity of his dead valet but is unmasked when he paints a portrait of his wife (with whom his valet had previously corresponded through a matrimonial agency). The ‘prop’ portrait was painted by Sir William Nicholson, a well-known portraitist and father of painter Ben Nicholson.

  24. Details from Canadian 1911 census and some pre-1910 entries in Pennell’s journal.

  25. Pennell’s journal MS433, 6 August 1913, The Times, Naval and Award Rolls (www.ancestry.co.uk) and Taylor.

  26. Clasps were given to those who already had been awarded polar medals.

  27. Jones (chapter 8).

  28. It is unclear whether Clissold’s absence was due to the after-effects of his accident in Antarctica or another ailment.

  29. James Montagu Wyatt was the son of a senior civil servant in the War Office and descended from a long line of well-known Anglo-Irish architects, including James Wyatt (1746–1813), the main rival to Robert Adam. ‘Miss Wyatt’ is Wyatt’s elder sister, Katherine Montagu Wyatt, a professional artist. ‘Treves’ is almost certainly Frederick Boileau Treves (1880–1938), the son of Dr William Treves (1843–1908, an eminent surgeon and physician of Margate) and nephew of Sir Frederick Treves (1853–1923, whose patients included King Edward VII and John Merrick). Frederick Boileau Treves studied medicine at Caius College, Cambridge (as did Edward Wilson); after working in London for several years he returned to Margate to work with his father (British Medical Journal obituary and Royal College of Surgeons website).

  30. MS433, 22 August 1913.

  31. MS433, 4 September 1913. The murals Pennell refers to are still visible in the old church at Oddington.

  32. MS433, 17 September 1913.

  33. MS433, 22 September 1913.

  34. MS433, 24 September and 13 October 1913.
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  35. MS433, 27 October 1913.

  36. MS433, 6 November 1913.

  37. A young naval officer’s salary was not sufficient to support a wife and family; Pennell, like Scott and Bowers, had a widowed mother and sisters to consider.

  38. Jones, The Last Great Quest, pp. 139–40 (Evans’ predecessors were Stanley, Nansen, Scott, Shackleton and Peary); The Times, 22 May 1913 (which lists those present).

  39. The Times, 10 June 1913.

  40. Evans to Emily Bowers, 24 September 1913, SPRI/MS1505/7/2/10.

  41. Lecture poster, Jones, p.171.

  42. Smith, I Am Just Going Outside, chapter 25; Limb and Cordingley, Captain Oates: Soldier and Explorer, chapter 11; newspaper reports.

  43. RGS journals; The Times, 11 November 1913.

  44. Information on Mawson’s expedition from Turney and Riffenburgh, Racing with Death.

  45. Scott’s Last Expedition, p. 622 and Scott, Journals, p. 434 and note.

  46. Letters quoted from among several which appeared in The Times on 4, 7, 8 and 10 November 1913.

  47. Jesse Boot had, as a boy, worked in his parents’ herbalist shop in Nottingham; the lavish wedding was reported in The Times (26 November 1913) and several regional papers; company information from Boots’ website.

  48. MSS 433, 7 December 1913.

  49. The Times, 11 December 1913, p.11.

  50. MSS 433, 28 December 1913.

  6

  Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New

  On Saturday, 3 January 1914 Pennell and Atkinson marked the New Year with an outing to a performance of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan – a work Pennell considered to be a ‘real living masterpiece’.1 Three days later Pennell tidied away his expedition papers, enjoyed ‘a good solid meal’ with Atkinson at Simpson’s in the Strand, walked to Charing Cross station and boarded the night train. He arrived in Lausanne the following morning ‘to the minute by the timetable’. At the ‘comfortable, quiet & splendidly clean’ hotel, he found his fiancée Katie and her parents, and her brothers Cyril and Charlie, who had joined them for a short holiday.

  Pennell’s first impressions of Lausanne were, with one exception, favourable:

  1. Cleanliness

  2. Good quality of shops & moderation in prices

  3. Politeness & good humour of the shop attendants without servility

  4. Absence of police

  5. Irritating exactness of byelaws at railway stations & tramways, etc., which necessitate being very early to ensure catching a train or tram.

  Pennell joined Katie and her brothers on day-long walks, during which they sustained themselves with picnic lunches supplemented by cafés au lait purchased from mountain cafés. After Cyril left for home, Pennell, Katie and Charlie continued to walk, ski, ride on mountain trams and take boat trips on the lake. They also visited Geneva and Les Avants, where there was a specially constructed luge course. After Charlie left, Pennell and Katie found themselves, for the first time in ten years of knowing each other, completely alone ‘without brotherly support’. Pennell realised Katie was somewhat troubled by ‘doubts & perplexities’ regarding the physical side of marriage, but, having sisters, knew this was common amongst girls who, like Katie, had been ‘brought up in complete ignorance of natural functions’.

  On Pennell’s last Saturday in Switzerland he and Katie made a return visit to Les Avants:

  it was gloriously sunny all day and few people were about. It was quite strange to have an extended view & to really see where we had been the first day. Caux was across the valley & we could make out the various details distinctly. It was in all respects a jolly day & Katie supremely happy.

  On 26 January Pennell said goodbye to Katie and her parents and set off on the long journey, by train, steamer and foot, back to Awliscombe.

  He returned to London in early February and dealt with a few tail ends of expedition work. Lady Nicholson, Atkinson’s aunt, invited him and Atkinson for dinner and he had an evening out with Lillie (dinner at Les Gobelins and a performance of The Great Adventure). With little of his own work to do, he helped Atkinson with some of his work at the London School of Tropical Medicine, a favour he was happy to do for a friend who had been prepared to answer questions on ‘aspects of the physical side of marriage’, which Pennell felt he could only have raised with his late father.

  When Pennell learned that he was to join HMS Duke of Edinburgh as navigator in about a month’s time, he went to Awliscombe to spend some time with his mother and sisters. His new ship, the lead vessel of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet, was commanded by Captain Cecil Prowse, whom Pennell had met in Lyttelton (when Prowse had been returning to England from the Australasian station). Prowse was known as an ‘old school’ sailor, but had been on training courses to prepare him for working on the new generation of battleships.

  On 9 February Pennell travelled to London to attend a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society by Edgeworth David, who was visiting from Sydney. Pennell thought David’s views on Antarctica were interesting but he found the eminent professor ‘rather inclined to talk hot air!’2 Shackleton, who was in the audience, spoke afterwards about his plans for a 1,700-mile trek across Antarctica which would, he estimated, take less than six months. For this expedition Shackleton would need two ships: one would sail from South America to the Weddell Sea, the other from New Zealand to the Ross Sea. The Weddell Sea party would cross the continent, while the smaller Ross Sea party would lay depots across the ice shelf to the Beardmore Glacier, which the Weddell Sea party would then use on the latter part of their journey.

  Men were already signing up to join the expedition. Frank Wild (a Discovery and Nimrod veteran) would be Shackleton’s second in command; Aeneas Mackintosh (a Nimrod veteran), Ernest Joyce (Discovery and Nimrod), Thomas Orde-Lees (an unsuccessful applicant to the Terra Nova expedition), and John Davis (a Nimrod veteran, still captaining the Aurora for Mawson) had also confirmed their interest in taking part. Alf Cheetham was also keen to take part in his fourth Antarctic expedition. Shackleton was keen to use aircraft during the expedition and had approached Tryggve Gran in London in May 1913, after hearing that Gran was planning to take up flying.3 Gran had attended a dinner with some of Shackleton’s potential backers but had not pursued the matter.

  Pennell had intended to return to Awliscombe immediately after David’s lecture but stayed in town for the following two weeks to help Rennick with some charting work. There would soon be a parting of the ways as Rennick was also expecting to hear about a new posting soon and Atkinson had recently committed to some work which would require him to travel to China.4

  On Friday, 13 February, Pennell paid a visit on an old expedition associate:

  I went down to London Bridge to see George Wyatt about the disposal of the sledges & at the same time arranged with him to convert £200 in 100 shares in the original Northern Exploration Company that is working in Spitzbergen. It will be an interesting investment at any rate, even if not lucrative, but we have high hopes of the latter too. Spitzbergen is in a curious state as it is a No-man’s Land, and is now proving to be full of mineral wealth. 5

  After completing his business Pennell returned to Queen Anne Street, where his sisters Dorothy and Winifred were due to arrive. Winifred would be leaving England the next day to take up a new post as a missionary with the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. With Pennell joining the Duke of Edinburgh and Atkinson going to China, it would be some time before they all saw each other or James Wyatt and his sister again.6

  The next day Pennell and Dorothy waved Winifred off at Southampton on a journey which would eventually bring her to the island of Likoma on Lake Nyasa, where she would be based for the next few years. Pennell then went to Cambridge to see Wright, Debenham and Priestley. The Terra Nova scientists had always been close but the bonds had strengthened since Wright and Griff Taylor had visited Priestley’s family home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and fallen in love with two of their friend’s si
sters.

  Pennell returned to London for a farewell evening with Atkinson and Rennick – dinner at Les Gobelins, a performance of The Great Adventure and post-theatre supper at the Piccadilly Restaurant. The following day Pennell met up with Frankie Davies (now based in Devonport) to discuss a description of the structure of the Terra Nova, which was needed by the publications committee. In the evening James Wyatt joined Pennell and Davies for a light-hearted evening at the Oxford Music Halls.

  On 20 February Atkinson and Cherry-Garrard left for China with Dr Robert Leiper. The eminent Scottish helminthologist, with whom Atkinson had previously worked, had travelled to Antarctica a decade earlier with William Speirs Bruce and knew of Edward Wilson’s pre-Terra Nova work on parasites affecting Scottish grouse. Atkinson and Leiper were to be in the Far East for up to eighteen months, studying a waterborne parasite which caused bilharzia fever, which affected both locals and British troops working there.7

  Cherry-Garrard was going to assist them for a few months, but would return in May to write an official narrative of the expedition. The publications sub-committee (on which Atkinson still served) had originally allocated this task to Teddy Evans but in his continuing absence had accepted Atkinson’s suggestion that the task should be given to Cherry. Atkinson, who had kept a friendly professional eye on Cherry since his collapse in Antarctica, knew Cherry had no need to earn his living but needed to feel that he was ‘playing his part’.

  Teddy Evans was continuing to spread his wings on the lecturing front. He had been invited to give a lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris, so had taken himself off to France, taken a crash course in French and, on 27 January, addressed the French president and prime minister, explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot and an audience of 5,000 in their own language.8 His lectures in Rome, Vienna, Budapest and Berlin had been equally well received so, having decided that he enjoyed travelling and lecturing, he sought, and was granted, permission to remain on half-pay. He was now planning a lecture tour of North America.