Editing Robert Falcon Scott (section)

== Reputation ==

=== Recognition ===

The world was informed of the tragedy when ''Terra Nova'' reached [[Oamaru]], New Zealand, on 10 February 1913.{{sfn|Crane|2005|pp=1–2}} Within days, Scott became a national icon.{{sfn|Preston|1999|p=230}} A nationalistic spirit was aroused; the ''[[London Evening News]]'' called for the story to be read to schoolchildren throughout the land,{{sfn|Jones|2003|pp=199–201}} to coincide with the memorial service at [[St Paul's Cathedral]] on 14 February. [[Robert Baden-Powell]], founder of the [[Boy Scouts Association]], asked: "Are Britons going downhill? No!&nbsp;... There is plenty of pluck and spirit left in the British after all. Captain Scott and Captain Oates have shown us that".{{sfn|Jones|2003|p=204}}

[[File:Robert Falcon Scott Statue - geograph.org.uk - 548114.jpg|thumb|upright|Scott statue at [[HMNB Portsmouth#Portsmouth Historic Dockyard|Portsmouth Historic Dockyard]], sculpted by [[Kathleen Scott]]]]

The expedition's survivors were suitably honoured on their return, with [[polar medal]]s and promotions for the naval personnel. In place of the knighthood that might have been her husband's had he survived, Kathleen Scott was granted the rank and precedence of a widow of a [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]].{{sfn|Preston|1999|p=231}}{{sfn|Fiennes|2003|p=383}}{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=523}} In 1922, she married [[Edward Hilton Young, 1st Baron Kennet|Edward Hilton Young]], later Lord Kennet, and remained a doughty defender of Scott's reputation until her death, aged 69, in 1947.{{sfn|Preston|1999|p=232}}

An article in ''[[The Times]]'', reporting on the glowing tributes paid to Scott in the New York press, claimed that both Amundsen and Shackleton were "[amazed] to hear that such a disaster could overtake a well-organized expedition".<ref>{{cite news | author = Unattributed | title = The Polar Disaster. Captain Scott's Career, Naval Officer And Explorer | work = The Times | page = 10 | date = 11 February 1913 }}</ref> On learning the details of Scott's death, Amundsen is reported to have said, "I would gladly forgo any honour or money if thereby I could have saved Scott his terrible death".{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=525}} Scott was the better wordsmith of the two, and the story that spread throughout the world was largely that told by him, with Amundsen's victory reduced in the eyes of many to an unsporting stratagem.{{sfn|Amundsen|1976|loc=Publisher's note}}

The response to Scott's final plea on behalf of the dependents of the dead was enormous by the standards of the day. The Mansion House Scott Memorial Fund closed at {{£|75000|1912|long=no|round=-3}}. This was not equally distributed; Scott's widow, son, mother and sisters received a total of {{£|18000|1912|long=no|round=-3}}. Wilson's widow received {{£|8500|1912|long=no|round=-3}} and Bowers's mother received {{£|4500|1912|long=no|round=-3}}. Edgar Evans's widow, children, and mother received {{£|1500|1912|long=no|round=-3}} between them.{{sfn|Jones|2003|pp=106–108}}

[[File:Statue of Robert Falcon Scott, Christchurch (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Statue of Robert Falcon Scott, Christchurch]], New Zealand, sculpted by his widow [[Kathleen Scott]]]]

In the dozen years following the tragedy, more than 30 monuments and memorials were set up in Britain alone, including the foundation of the [[Scott Polar Research Institute]] at [[Cambridge]]. Many more were established in other parts of the world, including a [[Statue of Robert Falcon Scott, Christchurch|statue sculpted by Scott's widow]] for his New Zealand base in Christchurch.{{sfn|Jones|2003|pp=295–296}} A number of institutions have relics and personal belongings from the expedition. Scott's snow shoes, sledging goggles and the book bag for his diary are held in the [[National Maritime Museum]] at Greenwich.<ref>{{cite web |title= Relics from Scott's Antarctic expedition |url= https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum/attractions/relics-captain-robert-falcon-scotts-antarctic-expedition |website= Royal Museums Greenwich |accessdate= 10 December 2023}}</ref> The [[Museum of Oxford]] contains among other items a [[marmalade]] tin gifted to Scott by an Oxford businessman which was recovered from the site of his death.<ref>{{Cite news |date= 11 October 2021 |title= Museum of Oxford reopening: Century-old marmalade tin among exhibits |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url= https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-58639707 |access-date= 5 November 2022}}</ref> The [[British Horological Institute#Museum of Timekeeping|Museum of Timekeeping]] at [[Upton Hall, Nottinghamshire]], England, has the pocket watch which was found with his body.<ref>{{cite book |last= Struthers |first= Rebecca |year= 2023 |title= Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History of Time |location= London |publisher= Holder & Stoughton |pages= 134–137 |type= Paperback |isbn= 9781529339000}}</ref> Scott's sledging flag is held in [[Exeter Cathedral]].

=== Modern reactions ===
{{main|Controversies surrounding Robert Falcon Scott}}
{{further|Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott expeditions}}
[[File:Scott memorial binton.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Three figures are depicted in coloured glass, standing by a cairn of snow topped by a large cross. The scene is framed by a decorative arch.|Memorial window in [[Binton Church]], Warwickshire, one of four panels. This one depicts the cairn erected over the site of Scott's last tent]]
Scott's reputation survived the period after [[World War II]], beyond the 50th anniversary of his death.{{sfn|Jones|2003|pp=287–289}} In 1948, the film ''[[Scott of the Antarctic (film)|Scott of the Antarctic]]'' was released in cinemas and was the third most popular film in Britain the following year. It portrays the team spirit of the expedition and the harsh Antarctic environment, but also includes critical scenes such as Scott regarding his broken down motors and ruefully remembering Nansen's advice to take only dogs.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/457209|title= BFI Screenonline: Scott of the Antarctic (1948)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> Evans and Cherry-Garrard were the only surviving expedition members to refuse participation in the film, but both re-published their respective books in its wake.

In 1966, [[Reginald Pound]], the first biographer given access to Scott's original sledging journal, revealed personal failings which cast a new light on Scott,{{sfn|Jones|2003|pp=287–289}} although Pound continued to endorse his heroism, writing of "a splendid sanity that would not be subdued".{{sfn|Pound|1966|pp=285–286}} Another book critical of Scott, [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]]'s ''Scott's Men'', was released in 1977. In Thomson's view, Scott was not a great man, "at least, not until near the end";{{sfn|Thomson|1977|loc=preface, xiii}} his planning is described as "haphazard" and "flawed",{{sfn|Thomson|1977|pp=153, 218}} his leadership characterised by lack of foresight.{{sfn|Thomson|1977|p=233}} Thus by the late 1970s, biographer Max Jones stated, "Scott's complex personality had been revealed and his methods questioned".{{sfn|Jones|2003|pp=287–289}}

In 1979 came the first extreme<ref>{{harvnb|Fiennes|2003|p=386}}. Francis Spufford, author of ''I May Be Some Time'', wrote: "Huntford's assault on Scott was so extreme it plainly toppled over into absurdity".</ref> attack on Scott, from [[Roland Huntford]]'s dual biography ''Scott and Amundsen'' in which Scott is depicted as a "heroic bungler".{{sfn|Huntford|1985|p=527}} Huntford's thesis had an immediate impact, becoming the contemporary orthodoxy.{{sfn|Jones|2003|p=8}} After Huntford's book, several other mostly negative books about Captain Scott were published; [[Francis Spufford]], in a 1996 history not wholly antagonistic to Scott, refers to "devastating evidence of bungling",{{sfn|Spufford|1997|p=5}} concluding that "Scott doomed his companions, then covered his tracks with rhetoric".{{sfn|Spufford|1997|pp=104–105}} Travel writer [[Paul Theroux]] summarised Scott as "confused and demoralised&nbsp;... an enigma to his men, unprepared and a bungler".{{sfn|Barczewski|2007|p=260}} This decline in Scott's reputation was accompanied by a corresponding rise in that of his erstwhile rival Shackleton, at first in the United States but eventually in Britain as well.{{sfn|Barczewski|2007|p=283}} A 2002 nationwide poll in the United Kingdom to discover the "[[100 Greatest Britons]]" showed Shackleton in eleventh place, Scott well down the list at 54th.{{sfn|Barczewski|2007|p=283}}

The 21st century has seen a shift of opinion in Scott's favour, in what cultural historian Stephanie Barczewski calls "a revision of the revisionist view".{{sfn|Barczewski|2007|pp=305–311}} Meteorologist [[Susan Solomon]]'s 2001 account ''The Coldest March'' ties the fate of Scott's party to the extraordinarily adverse Barrier weather conditions of February and March 1912 rather than to personal or organisational failings and, while not entirely questioning any criticism of Scott,{{sfn|Solomon|2001|pp=309–327}}{{sfn|Barczewski|2007|p=306}} Solomon principally characterises the criticism as the "Myth of Scott as a bungler".{{sfn|Solomon|2001|pp=xvi, xvii, 124, 129}}

In 2005 [[David Crane (historian)|David Crane]] published a new Scott biography in which he comes to the conclusion that Scott is possibly the only figure in polar history except Lawrence Oates "so wholly obscured by legend".{{sfn|Crane|2005|p=373}} According to Barczewski, he goes some way towards an assessment of Scott "free from the baggage of earlier interpretations".{{sfn|Barczewski|2007|pp=305–311}} What has happened to Scott's reputation, Crane argues, derives from the way the world has changed since the "hopeless heroism and obscene waste" of the First World War. At the time of Scott's death, people clutched at the proof he gave that the qualities that made Britain, indeed the [[British Empire]], great were not extinct. Future generations mindful of the carnage that started {{frac|2|1|2}} years later, the ideals of unquestionable duty, self-sacrifice, discipline, patriotism and hierarchy associated with his tragedy take on a different and more sinister colouring.{{sfn|Crane|2005|p=12}}

Crane's main achievement, according to Barczewski, is the restoration of Scott's humanity, "far more effectively than either Fiennes's stridency or Solomon's scientific data."{{sfn|Barczewski|2007|pp=305–311}} ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'' columnist Jasper Rees, likening the changes in explorers' reputations to climatic variations, suggests that "in the current Antarctic weather report, Scott is enjoying his first spell in the sun for twenty-five years".{{sfn|Rees|2004}} The ''New York Times Book Review'' was more critical, pointing out Crane's support for Scott's account regarding the circumstances of the freeing of the ''Discovery'' from the pack ice, and concluded that "For all the many attractions of his book, David Crane offers no answers that convincingly exonerate Scott from a significant share of responsibility for his own demise."{{sfn|Dore|2006}}

In 2012, Karen May published her discovery that Scott had issued written orders, before his march to the Pole, for Meares to meet the returning party with dog-teams, in contrast to Huntford's assertion in 1979 that Scott issued those vital instructions only as a casual oral order to Evans during the march to the Pole. According to May, "Huntford's scenario was pure invention based on an error; it has led a number of polar historians down a regrettable false trail".{{sfn|May|2013|pp=72–90}}

The expedition was the subject of ''Terra Nova'',<ref>{{Cite web|last=Biggs|first=Octavia|title=Terra Nova|url=https://www.moreheadstate.edu/caudill-college-of-arts,-humanities-and-social-sci/school-of-the-creative-arts/theatre/the-little-company/director-notes|access-date=24 November 2021|website=[[Moorhead State University]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Chambers |editor1-first=Colin |title=The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford Reference |isbn=9780199754724 |quote=Playwright and screenwriter. Tally gained early recognition with his ambitious first play Terra Nova (1977), which dramatized Scott's ill-fated 1912 expedition}}</ref> a 1977 play by [[Ted Tally]] (who later wrote the screenplay for ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs]]''). [[Beryl Bainbridge]]'s 1991 novel ''[[The Birthday Boys]]'' also gives a fictionalised account of the expedition, with monologues from the five men who died on the return from the pole.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Antarctic Antics|website=New York Times|date=17 April 1994|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/29/specials/bainbridge-birthday.html}}</ref>