'Scott of the Antarctic' letters up for auction at Dawsons

A collection of original correspondence chronicling the life and death of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott will go under the hammer at Dawsons Auctioneers later this month.

Due to be sold as a single lot, with a view to keeping it all together, it is estimated the letters will fetch between £8,000 and £10,000, on Thursday, August 27.

'Scott of the Antarctic' was a Royal Navy officer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions, the Discovery expedition of 1901–1904 and the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–1913, which cost him his life.

The collection, which spans almost a century, was recently discovered as part of a London house clearance. It had been held by the descendants of Scott’s sister, Ettie Myers Scott, following the death of Robert and Ettie’s mother.

Peter Mason, saleroom manager, auctioneer and valuer at Dawsons, said the period of the 1906 letters were particularly interesting.

He said: “It covers the time in between his infamous Antarctic expeditions, when he had become a popular hero of the nation, in addition to having been promoted to Flag Captain in his naval career.”

The collection includes handwritten letters from Scott to his family dating from 1896 and 1906, and a bound set of condolence letters and telegrams to his mother after his death.

One is from JM (James Matthew) Barrie, author of Peter Pan, the character who Scott named his son after, Sir Peter Scott.

It reads: “I had a warm affection for your son, and I wish there were something – anything – I could do for you to show it.”

Other items include letters from Roland Huntford, author of a controversial 1970s book on Captain Scott, which was written with the assistance of Scott’s family.

Peter believes the family agreed to help Huntford ‘perhaps without realising that the finished work would be very critical, even disparaging, of Captain Scott’s personality and capabilities’ He said letters from Sir Peter Scott, and others, ‘make clear the family’s displeasure with the final book’.

“It has been a fascinating journey to read through all of the items in this collection, as well as related published material, and piece together a snapshot of not just Captain Scott himself, but his family and the circles he was moving in,” said Peter.

Find out more at www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk/RobertScott/