18 January 1912
Presented to King George V
Wilson’s sledging sketches formed an essential part of the expedition record. These sketches complement the photographs taken at the South Pole. Wilson was chief of the scientific staff, and zoologist, on Terra Nova. He viewed the British defeat at the Pole with surprising calmness, writing that Amundsen had ’beaten us insofar as he has made a race of it’.
Pencil on paper
17.4 x 9.6 cm
Label on back of frame inscribed: Scott's Antarctic Expedition. The South Pole, with Amundsen's flag, as sketched by E.A. Wilson, 18 January 1912. This sketch was given to His Majesty King George V in fulfilment of the artist's wish. July 1913.