CHRISTCHURCH WOMAN TYPED SCOTT’S LAST INSTRUCTIONS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 18

CHRISTCHURCH WOMAN TYPED SCOTT’S LAST INSTRUCTIONS

A spring of rosemary may have been in Sir Edmund Hillary’s pocket when he set off on his long trek to the South Pole. It was sent to him before, he left New Zealand with the request that if he passed by or found the grave of Captain Scott and his companions he would place it there. Miss Marie Kitto, now a sprightly old lady of 82, who sent the rosemary to Sir Edmund Hillary, recollected last evening a day she had spent on board the Discovery in Lyttelton harbour taking down in shorthand and then typing Captain Scott’s instructions in case of his not returning from the Antarctic. A photograph in Saturday’s issue of “The Press’’ of Captain Scott’s party at the South Pole brought back vivid memories to Miss Kitto. “They were such quiet men—quiet and determined,’’ she-said. “Captain Scott was thoughtful and methodical. Everything was planned to the last detail with painstaking care. I spent the day typing letters to his family, setting out his wishes for their future, and to his many New Zealand friends thanking them for their many kind thoughts and actions.’-' In the tiny cramped cabin, which served as Captain Scott’s day cabin and office, Miss Kitto sat at a desk barely large enough for her typewriter. Captain Scott sat in a chair behind her, dictating

at a slow even speed and occasionally rising to stretch his legs. After some hours Captain Scott said “I wonder if you would mind if I smoked just one cigarette. I am so very tired.’’ She willingly agreed and the two relaxed for a few moments. Miss Kitto at the time was employed as typist for a Christchurch solicitor, the late Mr De Renzy Harman, and had asked for a day off, not telling Mr Harman what she would be doing. Little did she know that Mr Harman was one of a party of Christchurch men who visited the ship that day. She still thinks how fortunate it was that her employer did not visit Captain Scott’s cabin. Members of the expedition called on Captain Scott during the day for instructions and to discuss problems. Of them Miss Kitto remembers Dr. Edward Wilson the most clearly. He was a fine man, inspiring and full of confidence, she said. “As I typed out the long notes and instructions for Captain Scott, I did not think for one minute that he might not return,’’ Miss Kitto said. “I was most upset when the news of his death, and those of his brave companions, reached Christchurch.” One of the treasured memories of a long and busy life, Miss Kitto still thinks of that day as the most satisfying and rewarding. When she heard that Sir Edmund Hillary was to lead the New Zealand party to the Antarctic and might at some stage be near the lonely ice basin that is Captain Scott’s grave, she sent him the sprig of rosemary. Perhaps it too is now buried beneath the swirling snows—the small token of a little old lady remembering a gallant and brave man and the quiet words of Ophelia: “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.”