Edward L. Atkinson

Edward Leicester Atkinson, DSO, AM (23 November 1881 – 20 February 1929) was a Royal Navy surgeon and Antarctic explorer who was a member of the scientific staff of Captain Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13.

He was in command of the expedition's base at Cape Evans for much of 1912, and led the party which found the tent containing the bodies of Scott, "Birdie" Bowers and Edward Wilson.

He was primarily a researcher, and had published a paper on gonorrhoeal rheumatism[2] when he was appointed physician and parasitologist to the Terra Nova expedition.

[9] He learned that the chief dog driver, Cecil Meares, had resigned from the expedition,[10] was waiting for the ship to take him home and was "not available" for Barrier work.

Atkinson and Gerov were delayed by bad weather at Hut Point when, on 19 February, Tom Crean arrived on foot from the Barrier and reported that Lt Edward Evans was lying seriously ill in a tent some 35 miles to the south, and in urgent need of rescue.

[12] Atkinson sent a note back to the Cape Evans base camp requesting either the meteorologist Wright or Cherry-Garrard to take over the task of meeting Scott with the dogs.

Instead, he and Gerov decided to feed the dog food generously to the dogs, and after waiting there for Scott for several days, apparently mostly in blizzard conditions (although no blizzard was recorded by Scott some 100 miles further south until 10 March), they returned to Hut Point on 16 March, in poor physical condition and without news of the polar party.

[15] The subsequent winter at Cape Evans was a difficult and tense time for the depleted expedition crew, but Atkinson maintained a programme of scientific and leisure activities, and managed to hold morale.

Atkinson found Scott's diary and learned the story of the disaster; he then read to the assembled men the relevant sections including those recording the deaths of PO Evans and Captain Oates.

While in command of the base during the critical Feb–March 1912 period, Atkinson had to execute Scott's instructions about how the dogs were to be employed after their return from the Barrier stage of the polar journey.

[dubious – discuss] Once Atkinson was aware that Meares would not make the 'third' journey he, at first, planned to take the dogs himself, and had already reached Hut Point with Dimitri on 13 February where he was beset by bad weather.

However, the arrival on 19 February of Crean, with the news that Lashly was lying with the stricken Lt. Evans at Corner Camp, meant further changes of plans.

But a growing concern that he might need the assistance of the dogs is perhaps evident in Scott's "come as far as you can" order to Atkinson on 22 December – see Southern Journey section above.

Cherry-Garrard invoked instructions, whether from Atkinson or ultimately from Scott is contradictory in his book, which were "never changed",[28] were that the dogs were to be saved for scientific journeys in the following year and were "not to be risked" during the summer and autumn of 1911 – 12.

Apparently mindful of the "not to be risked" dictum (and faced with bad weather, eyesight problems, illness and lack of navigating skills) he chose to wait.

This decision was commended as correct by Atkinson[29] (and, in light of the poor health in which both men and dogs were on their return, it seems it would have been irresponsible to have done otherwise), but would later cause Cherry-Garrard much distress.

Furthermore, one should remember the dates: Atkinson did not return himself from the south until 29 January, so had no part in the reasoning to deposit only the minimum 3 XS rations and no dog food at One Ton in early January and no knowledge of it until it was too late; he was unaware of Scott's decision to take five men to the pole (and the subsequent recalculation of rations) until Crean arrived at Hut Point on the 19 February; he had no significant cause for concern for the polar party until Cherry-Garrard and Dimitri's return on 16 March, and even less when they departed on 26 February (his last opportunity to issue instructions to the inexperienced Cherry-Garrard).

Fiennes concludes: "There are many individuals involved with what Scott termed a 'miserable jumble', and all have produced their own versions of what prompted their action or inaction at the time.

Scurvy had affected previous Antarctic expeditions, including Scott's with the Discovery, and dietary provision had not improved much meantime.

[34] The growth in scientific understanding of the nature and causes of scurvy in the years after 1912 may have helped fuel the assumption that Scott and his companions had been affected by it.

Even Raymond Priestley of the expedition's scientific staff, who had at one time denied the incidence of scurvy was, fifty years later, beginning to think differently.

After service in North Russia,[40] on 16 September 1918, Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander Atkinson received horrific injuries from an explosion aboard HMS Glatton in Dover Harbour.

[41] It was also during the war that Atkinson was approached to be a part of the relief expedition to look for Ernest Shackleton and his crew on the Endurance, which was stranded somewhere in the Weddell Sea.

On board ship in the Mediterranean on 20 February 1929, on his way back to England, Atkinson died suddenly, at the age of 47, and was buried at sea.

"[45] Atkinson was portrayed by James McKechnie in the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic, and by Robin Soans in the 1985 television serial The Last Place on Earth.