Lawrence (Edward Grace) Oates - Background, Terra Nova Expedition, Trivia

Explorer, born in London, UK. He was educated at Eton, joined the army, and served in South Africa. In 1910 he joined Scott's Antarctic Expedition in charge of the ponies, and was one of the party of five to reach the South Pole in 1912. On the return journey the explorers became weatherbound. Lamed by severe frostbite, and convinced that his condition would fatally handicap his companions' prospect of survival, he walked out into the blizzard, sacrificing his life. His last words have become famous: ‘I am just going outside, I may be some time’.

Lawrence Edward Grace Oates (March 17, 1880 – March 17, 1912) was a British Antarctic explorer.

Background

Oates was born in Putney in 1880, and educated at Eton College.

Terra Nova Expedition

Oates went down in history for his famous last words:

"I am just going outside and may be some time."

These words, as recorded by Robert Falcon Scott, have caused Oates to be remembered as the epitome of the English upper-class hero. Oates was nicknamed Titus in reference to Titus Oates, famed for his role in the Popish Plot. Scott selected him as one of the five-man party who would travel the final distance to the pole, but Oates himself had little desire to go to the pole and was additionally suffering from an old war wound which was aggravated by scurvy.

Oates clashed with Scott many times on issues of management of the expedition, and once wrote in this diary "Myself, I dislike Scott intensely and would chuck the whole thing if it were not that we are a British expedition....

Trivia

Brenda Clough's 2001 fish-out-of-water science fiction novella "May Be Some Time" has "Titus" Oates transported to the year 2045 where he is healed via advanced medicine.

On TV series The O.C., Seth Cohen names his imaginary friend and toy horse after "Captain Oates".

In an episode of the British TV series Red Dwarf, the characters plead with the hologram Rimmer to sacrifice himself by agreeing to be turned off, comparing the act to that of Oates. Rimmer simply dismisses Oates as a "prat", suggesting instead that Scott ate Oates.

A biography ('I am Just Going Outside: Captain Oates - Antarctic Tragedy', Spellmount Publishers 2002) has confidently alleged that Laurence Oates fathered a daughter as the result of a brief affair with an 11-year-old Scots girl named Ettie McKendrick.