Edward Adrian Wilson
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Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson ("Uncle Bill") (July 23, 1872 – March 29, 1912) was a notable English polar explorer, physician, naturalist and ornithologist.
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[edit] Early life
Born and raised at the Crippetts farm near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Wilson attended Cheltenham College and went from there to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University. His statue is on the Promenade in Cheltenham, and there is a small standing exhibition commemorating him in the town's museum. At Gonville and Caius College the college's flag which Wilson took to the South Pole is preserved.
[edit] Antarctica
Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica. The first was from 1901 to 1904 under Robert Falcon Scott on the Discovery Expedition, with Wilson acting as Junior Surgeon and Zoologist. During this expedition, Wilson joined Scott and Shackleton in a journey that, at the time, had been the southern-most trek achieved by any explorer. (He was then asked by Ernest Shackleton to join his expedition to Antarctica in 1907, but declined.)
[edit] Terra Nova Expedition
In 1910 Wilson set sail on the Terra Nova, again under Scott, as Chief of the Scientific Staff. In the winter of 1911 he made a journey, with Henry Robinson Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard, to Cape Crozier to collect Emperor penguin embryos. He was one of the party of five men that reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912. All five died during the return journey which created a national mourning the like of which has rarely been seen since.
By all accounts, Wilson was probably Scott's closest comrade of the expedition. When Scott's final camp was discovered by a search team led by Cherry-Garrard a year after the fateful return from the pole, Bowers and Wilson were found frozen in their sleeping bags. Scott's bag was open and his body partially out of his bag - his left arm was extended around Wilson.
[edit] Honors
The Edward Wilson primary school in Paddington, London is named after him.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Portrait of Edward Wilson in the Cheltenham Town Museum
- Biography of Edward Wilson with a good number of his paintings and drawings
