Cherry

by Sara Wheeler

  I had expected failure SLE, 11 December 1911 [1968 facsimile edition].

  and a better march Journal, 18 December 1911.

  but things being close ibid.

  I’m afraid I have . . . No, no, no. At Journal, 20 December 1911.

  the best man in Clements Markham, Antarctic Obsession , Huntingdon, 1986, p. 96.

  Wilson wrote that I Marginalia, private collection.

  Please write to Mrs EW to Oriana Wilson, 21 December 1911, in Seaver, Wilson, p. 275.

  He is the most RFS to RS, in WJ, pp. lxiv–lxv.

  mournful air Journal, 21 December 1911.

  pulling his guts out ibid.

  Scott has only to ibid., 22 December 1911.

  With the depôt which RFS to EA, in WJ, p. 426.

  Had a hell of Pat Keohane, Diary, 22 December 1911.

  puddingy Journal, 22 December 1911.

  a good whack of ibid., 24 December 1911.

  Had a bad bellyake Keohane, Diary, 25 December 1911.

  I will take on ACG to EW, 28 December 1911.

  I watched my companions Postscript, p. 588.

  My birthday, and given Journal, 2 January 1912.

  Within a yard of Silas, p. 235.

  As I lay in Keohane, Diary, 13 January 1912.

  I miss you horribly ECG to ACG, 23 July 1911, family collection.

  I thought as I ECG to ACG, 28 May 1911, family collection.

  absolutely bewildering. England seems Journal, 3 February 1912.

  the rumblings of the Postscript, p. 599.

  Personally I hope it Harry Woollcombe to ACG, 18 October 1911.

  Scott a fool . . . Too Silas, p. 221.

  as big as Regent Evans, South with Scott, p. 198.

  I think the British HB to Emily Bowers, 3 January 1912.

  too great a sacrifice Evans, South with Scott, p. 208.

  he is turning black The Diary of William Lashly, Reading, 1940, p. 21.

  I kissed his old Evans, South with Scott, p. 225.

  How funny we should Lashly, p. 37.

  I’m right in it Journal, 24 February 1912.

  as it would not RFS to Joseph Kinsey, 28 October 1911, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

  It did not cross Cherry’s mind to disobey those orders After Cherry died, Deb wrote in his obituary in Polar Record X, 64 (1960, p. 93) that the fact that he disobeyed orders weighed on his mind for the rest of his life. (Deb did not mention this in his other, fuller obituary in The Times.) This inaccurate statement reflects the muddled understanding of Scott’s orders on the expedition, and the lack of awareness over the changes Scott made on the march. Cherry did not think that he had disobeyed orders, and he had not. What weighed on him was the thought that he might have taken another decision at One Ton and pressed on in the blizzard. Deb was presumably referring to Scott’s order to ‘take the dogs as far as you can’; but this had been superseded by Atch’s order on no account to risk the dogs.

  Deb appeared to confirm that his friend was in no way guilty of disobeying orders in his Times obituary (19 May 1959) which refers to Cherry’s depression in later years and his ‘needlessly uneasy conscience about the part he played’.

  I had no reason WJ, p. 434.

  We hope against hope SLE, 7 March 1912.

  Dear Sir, We leave ACG to RFS, 16 March 1912.

  Lately I have felt Journal, 14 March 1912.

  Cherry-Garrard under the . . . Both men were in EA, ‘The Last Year at Cape Evans’, in SLE II, p. 306.

  It’s a miserable jumble SLE, 10 March 1912 [1968 facsimile edition].

  At last we have Ernest Joyce, Diary, 26 October 1915, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

  If the depôt had GBS to ACG, 18 November 1948 (notes inserted in Journal).

  Chapter 7: It is the Tent

  Is is sad that Journal, 17 March 1912.

  hardly cared what happened ibid., 21–2 March 1912.

  What castles one builds SLE, 5 January 1912.

  Atch and I look Journal, 25 March 1912.

  Hullo! Cherry, they’re in . . . Who’s cook ibid., 26 March 1912.

  hope sprang up anew WJ, p. 442.

  morally certain that the EA, ‘The Last Year’, in SLE II, p. 309.

  I think I have Journal, 2 April 1912.

  more or less an ibid., 1 May 1912.

  a garbled, disloyal account ibid., 3 April 1912.

  Evans has been the ACG to RS, 15 July 1912.

  This winter is passing Keohane, Diary, 21 July 1912.

  We usually wear our Thomas Williamson, Diary, 11 July 1912.

  It is of some Journal, 17 August 1912.

  that has been one ibid., 7 July 1912.

  Cherry was his usual Silas, p. 300.

  a ghastly experience WJ, p. 470.

  The scenery has lost FD, The Quiet Land, p. 143.

  top dog Journal, 9 September 1912.

  God knows I have ibid., 10 September 1912.

  It is all I . . . There is not a . . . And when we got ibid., 4 October 1912.

  others sit round the ibid.

  forgetfulness of self Postscript, p. 603.

  A vague kind of WJ, p. 497.

  It is the tent ibid.

  like old alabaster The image is from Thomas Williamson’s diary, 12 November 1912.

  That scene can never WJ, p. 497.

  It was something breaking Tryggve Gran, in Scott’s Last Journey, BBC 2, 19 March 1972.

  All the day-dreams SLE, 16 January 1912.

  It was a very EW, Diary, 17 January 1912.

  our poor slighted Union SLE, 18 January 1912.

  We are going like Roald Amundsen, ‘Sledging Diary’, 8 November 1911, Oslo, trans. Roland Huntford.

  rather dull and incapable SLE, 4 February 1912.

  We are in a ibid., 2 March 1912.

  living among the fleshpots Amundsen, ‘Sledging Diary’, 7 January 1912, Oslo, trans. Roland Huntford.

  I am just going . . . Should this be found . . . and though we constantly SLE, 16 or 17 March 1912.

  amputation is the least ibid., 19 March 1912.

  For God’s sake look ibid., ‘Last entry’.

  Death has no terrors EW to E. T. Wilson and Mary Wilson, 21 or 22 March 1912.

  all is for the EW to Oriana Wilson, 21 or 22 March 1912, in Seaver, Wilson, p. 293.

  Your ever loving Son HB to Emily Bowers, n.d.

  He was one of WJ, pp. 213–14

  How cold are your ibid., p. 298.

  We are weak, writing SLE, ‘Message to the Public’, n.d.

  The Lord giveth and WJ, p. 499.

  I do not know ibid.

  They died having done Huxley, p. 257.

  I for one shall . . . The question of what Journal, 12–13 November 1912.

  Subsequent climate data reveals Until recently little was known of the weather deep in the Barrier. But in the early 1980s American researchers positioned automatic weather stations at sites near Scott’s route. Susan Solomon, a leading atmospheric scientist, analysed information yielded by these stations. She concluded that Simpson’s prediction that in an average season Scott would have experienced temperatures of about minus 20 on his march back was correct – but 1912 was no average year out on the Barrier. Only one other year in the century was as cold. Scott was, in this respect, exceptionally unlucky. Solomon sets out her results in The Coldest March (New Haven, 2001), and in her scholarly monograph, co-written with Charles R. Stearns, ‘On the Role of the Weather in the Deaths of R. F. Scott and his Companions’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (November 1999), pp. 13012–16.

  We were always careful Journal, 12–13 November 1912.

  Hereabouts died a very ibid., 15 November 1912.

  his face transformed EA, ‘The Last Year’, in SLE II, p. 349.

  It is the happiest Journal, 26 November 1912.

  The road to hell George Murray Levick, in WJ, p. xlv.

  Hope I have set Silas, p. 355.

  a terrible fit of Journ
al, 28 November 1912.

  Truly Shackleton’s expedition must ibid., 5 December 1912.

  more like a steeplechase ibid., 25 December 1912.

  Are you all well . . . The Polar Party died WJ, p. 584.

  The pleasant memories are Journal, 19 January 1913.

  The last year has ibid., 18 January 1913.

  I do not believe ibid., 22 January 1913.

  I should like to . . . I wonder if all . . . It’s fairly sickening and ibid., 26 January 1913.

  One started with such ibid., 3 February 1913.

  It seems to me . . . Their biggest day’s march E. R. G. R. Evans to Ralph, Silvia & Lal Gifford, 6 February 1913, private collection.

  Why should I be Reginald Pound, Evans of the Broke , 1963, p. 157.

  I consider him to . . . I see he is Journal, 25 January 1913.

  With what mixed feelings WJ, p. 592.

  Come down here a . . . It’s made a tremendous WJ, p. 593.

  capable of maintaining the . . . moral and spiritual The Times, 12 February 1913.

  She is as fine Journal, 13 February 1913.

  I believe I am ibid.

  the old, old story . . . quite hysterical . . . all that could be ibid., 14 February 1913.

  tapped The Times, 12 February 1913.

  that relations between the Sydney Morning Herald, 14 February 1913.

  All these questions and Draft material, WJ.

  Do not worry about ACG to ECG, 15 February 1913.

  congratulations . . . Longing to get you ECG to ACG, 15 February 1913.

  All kinds of wild . . . I don’t know that . . . Oh! She is wonderful . . . Beautiful table, good dinner Journal, 15 February 1913.

  It seems to be Journal, 20 February 1913.

  a horrid day. Everybody ibid., 21 February 1913.

  He looks just a Lilian Burton to ECG, 18 February 1913.

  It is a horrid Journal, 3 March 1913.

  I know how splendidly ibid., 9 March 1913.

  You will pull the RFS to Joseph Kinsey, 24 March 1912 (Kinsey photographed the letter. The print he gave Cherry is inserted in Cherry’s journal).

  damned disgusted . . . that the men who FD to ACG, 3 March 1913 (inserted in Journal).

  Chapter 8: Kipling in Real Life

  Sometimes you seem a Emily Bowers to ACG, 9 July 1913.

  Oh, he was just Noted by Caroline Oates, 26 June 1913, private collection.

  disgusted with the way ibid., 27 April 1913.

  It is very undesirable Francis Drake to ACG, 24 June 1913.

  Reginald Smith comes to KS, Diary, 10 October 1913, Kennet Papers.

  gorgeous RS to ACG, 12 June 1913.

  How stupid that minor Grace Scott to ACG, 18 July 1922.

  The frosty reaction of the museum staff Was Cherry unfair in his attack on the museum? Perhaps. After all, he did not have an appointment.

  neither has added greatly C. W. Parsons, British Antarctic (‘Terra Nova’) Expedition, 1910: Natural History Reports IV: Zoology, 1935, p. 260.

  There is courage and Punch, 12 November 1913.

  quite the nicest thing ACG to AF, 21 July 1914, Hertford.

  They would not listen Annotated journal [ January 1913].

  The committee meant to ibid.

  I feel how happy Oriana Wilson to ACG, 8 July 1913.

  Lady Scott’s possessive instinct Annotated journal [October 1911].

  Dear Mr Garrad H. G. Lyons to ACG, 15 February 1914.

  Among all the heroes The Times, 24 February 1914.

  The country is in ACG to AF, 31 March 1914, BRO.

  eye goggles, sledge, tapered . . . Find out the cause . . . ACG, ‘Notebook of suggestions for the official history’.

  Get details of acetylene . . . Plentiful supply of nails ibid.

  I have missed you EA to ACG, 23 May 1914.

  She asked me to ibid.

  Some day you will EA to ACG, [n.d.] May 1914.

  We never used snowshoes ACG to Albert Hodge, 13 July 1914.

  I cannot read or Punch, 29 July 1914.

  This is an interesting South Polar Times III, Part II.

  I can say quite ACG to Rudyard Kipling, 22 December 1913, the Kipling Collection, Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire. I am grateful to Andrew Lycett and George Potirakis for this information.

  My income seems to ACG to AF, 21 July 1914, BRO.

  Now, God be thanked Rupert Brooke, ‘1914’, 1914.

  an awful wild goose . . . We might have as ACG to AF, 23 August 1914, BRO.

  Here I am living . . . They are a splendid ACG to AF, 23 September 1914, BRO.

  I am not sure ACG to AF, n.d., BRO.

  The one thing which ibid.

  They called it an Josiah Wedgwood, Essays and Adventures of a Labour MP, 1924, p. 203.

  We shall be ready ACG to AF, 16 December 1914, Hertford.

  this damn peninsula Peter Ashton to ACG, 30 August 1915.

  the stereotyped respectability of Draft material, WJ.

  Tell them I die The Times, 13 July 1915.

  the first mechanised cavalry Josiah Wedgwood, Memoirs of a Fighting Life, 1941, p. 93.

  in trench warfare and General de Lisle, Report to Admiralty, 27 May 1915, PRO.

  Thus at the very Winston Churchill, Report to President of Royal Commission on War Inventions, September 1919, PRO.

  Remember the Lusitania Pound, p. 154.

  At the end of June 1915 For further information on the demonstration at Wormwood Scrubbs, and on how the tank developed within the RNAS, see Rear-Admiral Sir Murray Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank, 1941 (revised edition).

  a pretty mechanical toy Lord Kitchener, in Sueter, p. 91.

  contracted in his expedition Admiralty service record, PRO.

  Before I had recovered WJ, p. liii.

  Chapter 9: The War had Won

  We all feel we Ponting, p. 298.

  The war from a Henry Pennell to ACG, 17 December 1915.

  We have had some E. Snelling to ACG, 6 June 1916.

  I very much miss A. L. Dykes to ACG, 17 September 1915.

  The intimate mental history Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man, 1928, p. 335.

  Look here old chap . . . Please forgive any interference EA to ACG, 1 February 1916.

  The public have not EA to ACG, 1 January 1916.

  the constant poisoning from ACG to AF, 11 March 1916, BRO.

  I don’t think there ACG to AF, 25 March 1916, BRO.

  I have written to ACG to AF, 18 April 1916, Hertford.

  I am very gradually ACG to AF, 12 June 1916, BRO.

  I shall be most ACG to Sidney Harmer, 12 May 1916.

  that it is an . . . one example only. I ibid.

  I don’t want to RFS to ES, 18 February 1907.

  I wish to God EW to ES, n.d.

  Do you think he ACG to KS, 8 July 1914.

  Darkness settled on six Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s Boat Journey, 1999, p. 161.

  Emerged from a war Frank Hurley, Argonauts of the South, 1925, p. 290.

  We’ve had a hot Tom Crean to ACG, 21 September 1917.

  desperate venture Draft material, WJ.

  For a joint scientific WJ, Preface [omitted from 1994 edition].

  When you have a Draft material, WJ.

  neither race had won Edmund Blunden, The Mind’s Eye , 1934, p. 38.

  had met direction that Introduction to Keeling: Letters & Recollections, ed. ‘ET’, 1918, p. xiii.

  Talk of ex-soldiers: give WJ, Preface [omitted from 1994 edition].

  as a dumping ground ACG to AF, 28 April 1916, BRO.

  stood still for about . . . so vivid that I ACG to AF, 2 October 1916, BRO.

  a village where nobody Bernard Shaw’s Letters to Siegfried Trebitsch, ed. Samuel A. Weiss, Stanford, 1980, p. 243.

  It is right out ACG to AF, 8 October 1916, Hertford.

  for I diagnose KS, Diary, 28 December 1916, Kennet Papers.

  I want to say EW to RS and Isabel Smith, 21 or 22 March 1912, in Seaver,
Wilson, p. 293.

  We saw Mrs Wilson KS, Diary, 29 December 1916, Kennet Papers.

  It’s much better fun ACG to Christabel McLaren, 30 March 1921, BL.

  He was he says KS, Diary, 26 April 1917, Kennet Papers.

  most intimate and cordial KS, Diary, 30 June 1917, Kennet Papers.

  the nearest I ever Young, p. 175.

  He is coming on KS, Diary, 10 June 1918, Kennet Papers.

  a regular domestic institution GBS to Lillah McCarthy, 2 September 1917, in BSCL III, p. 503.

  If you happen to Harley Granville Barker to ACG, 16 May 1917.

  The two most brilliant Granville Barker and His Correspondents, ed. Eric Salmon, Detroit, 1986, p. 9.

  I should love to Denis Lillie to ACG, 7 July 1916.

  It was only my Denis Lillie to ACG, 23 August 1916.

  examining military shit for ibid.

  When I see a Tryggve Gran to G. Evelyn Hutchinson, n.d. (circa July 1968).

  no nice cliffs or Denis Lillie to ACG, 7 December 1916.

  being unconventional and as Denis Lillie to ACG, 10 June 1917.

  if a motor does Denis Lillie to ACG, 15 August 1917.

  I do hope your Denis Lillie to ACG, n.d.

  Clean all boots in Draft material, WJ.

  Lashly . . . sent him his field notes Like most field diaries, Lashly’s polar notebook consisted of brief notes written in extremely trying circumstances. When Cherry asked if he could meet him ‘to have a yarn’ (ACG to Lashly, 5 May 1916), Lashly was unable to get leave, so he copied the notebook out and probably at this point expanded his field jottings into the fuller account that Cherry duly had typed. The two versions of the diary do not differ in substance or interpretation. It is the fuller account that appears in The Worst Journey, and was later reprinted by the University of Reading in a limited edition with Lashly’s co-operation ( The Diary of William Lashly, Reading, 1940). ‘It is the truth,’ Lashly wrote when discussing the Reading edition (Lashly to Robert Gibbings, 4 October 1938). The original, much briefer version was partially reproduced in Under Scott’s Command: Lashly’s Antarctic Diaries, ed. A. R. Ellis, 1969. It was standard practice to expand field notes into a fuller diary when time allowed. Both versions of Keohane’s diary, for example, can be read at SPRI.

  I know you would William Lashly to ACG, 2 September 1916.

  very ordinary, middle-class KS to ACG, n.d.

  I have seen Lyons FD to ACG, 20 December 1918.

  I see no end ACG to Emily Bowers, 14 December 1917.

  If it be admitted . . . If it is to ACG to Canon Nance, 8 March 1918.