WILSON IN ANTARCTIC

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29783, 28 March 1962, Page 15

WILSON IN ANTARCTIC

Aii Impression Corrected

It was far from the truth to say Dr. E. A. Wilson did not want to go on. Scott’s last expedition and that his wife was against it, says the Rev. J. F. B. Keith in a letter to the editor of “The Piress,” disputing a statement by Mr E. G. G. Wilkie in an interview printed yesterday. “In fairness to the memory of Dr. Willson, I would like to correct an impression Which Mr Wilkie makes,” say Mr Keith. “Mr Wilkie says: ‘I remember most clearly Dr. E. A. Wilson. He had bad luck. He didn’t want to go on the Antarctic expedition, and his wife was against it too.’ This, I would say, is fair from the truth. “In George Seaver’s ‘Edward Wilson of the Antarctic’ on page 181. he says: ‘On September 16 (Scotti sent Wilson a telegram requesting him to organise and lead the scientific staff of the expedition to leave England in June of the following year. It was a fateful decision for Wilson to make, though from the first his acceptance was almost a foregone conclusion.’ “On page 182 Seaver says ‘As regards his wife’s contribution to the decision 'it is best expressed in Sir A. E. Shipley’s words . . . “with that heroism and above all wtiiih that patience of waiting, which is so often the gift of great women, she acquiesced and aided in every way her husband’s adventure on both his Antarctic voyages.” ’ “And leading the previous letters which passed between Scott and Wilson on pages 179 following, the general impression is that Scott wanted no-one else in the world as much as Dr. Wilson to accompany him 'when he went south again. “Anyone reading Wilson’s life would get the impression that he would not be the sort of person to make so momentous a decision, fraught with so much danger and uncertainty, without making quite sure, as far as was humanly possible, that it was God’s will that he should go. But Wilson was every inch a Christian. “Later Scott described him as ‘the life and soul of the party.’ And writing home when there was the hope of has being chosen for the polar party. Wilson says ‘May I be there!’

“Therefore it. is important that the fact of such a man being chosen to undertake such a great venture should not be described as ‘bad luck,’ nor should it be suggested that his wife in any way discouraged him from undertaking it,” says Mr Keith.