SCOTT'S SON, PETER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 9

SCOTT'S SON, PETER.

WISH RESPECTED.

FIRST PUBLIC LECTURE. FAMOUS XAST LETTER 1 RECALLED. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, May 14. When Peter Scott, son of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the explorer who lost his life at the South Pole, gave his first public lecture in London this week.) many of the audience were reminded of< his father's last letter. As death approached, Captain Scottwrote to his wife about their child Peter: "Make the boy interested in ;natural history if you can. It is better 'than games; they encourage it at some' schools. I know you will keep him in ( the open air. Above all, he must guard and you must guard him against indol-j ence. Make him a strenuous man. I; had to force myself into being strenu-, ous, as you know —had always an, inclination to be idle.' Peter was three years old then. He is '•23 now. His father's wishes have been respected. The lad was brought up in the open air. He has lived in the '.pen air since. He took to natural history! las readily as he took to swimming and J rowing. He studied biology at Trinity College.;. •Cambridge. His principal interest is jornithologv and, in particular, the study| of wildfowl. Most of his time is spent)' oil the Lincolnshire-Xorfolk marsbes.j; ihis home, a disused lighthouse, for j j which he pays £5 a year rent. ■\ Now he proves a first-class lecturer.!, (Confident, clear, charming his audience;] with his humour, directness and eagerj. zest, he spoke about an expedition to i 'the Caspian Sea in the cause of natural,i .'history. l(