Edgar Evans

Cast

Born

March 7, 1876 · Rhossili, Wales

Died

February 17, 1912

Edgar Evans was part of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's historic but ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica back in 1912. The Welsh Royal Navy petty officer was one of just five in Captain Scott's British Antarctic Party to reach the South Pole in 1912, only to discover Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen's group had beaten them by 33 days. All five perished from a combination of starvation, exhaustion and extreme cold on their return from the Pole. Evans died at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier exactly a month after he'd reached the Pole. Scott's biographer Roland Huntford described Evans as "a huge, bull-necked beefy figure". Scott chose Petty Officer Evans as a member of his polar party, together with Lieutenant Henry Robertson Bowers, Lawrence Oates, and Dr Edward Adrian Wilson. Scott described Evans as "a giant worker". "He is responsible for every sledge, every sledge-fitting, tents, sleeping-bags, harness, and when one cannot recall a single expression of dissatisfaction with any one of these items, it shows what an invaluable assistant he has been." As the disappointed group descended the Beardmore Glacier on their way back from the pole, Evans is thought to have suffered a head injury in a fall into a crevasse on February 4, 1912, sustaining serious concussion which caused his condition to rapidly worsen and led to his death 13 days later. He was the first of the explorers to die.