Edward Leicester Atkinson, (23 November 1881 – 20 February 1929) was a Royal Navy surgeon and Antarctic explorer who was a member of the scientific staff of Captain Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. He was in command of the expedition's base at Cape Evans for much of 1912, and led the party which found the tent containing the bodies of Scott, "Birdie" Bowers and Edward Wilson. Atkinson was subsequently associated with two controversies: that relating to Scott's orders concerning the use of dogs, and that relating to the possible incidence of scurvy in the polar party. He is commemorated by the Atkinson Cliffs on the northern coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica, at .
Background Atkinson was born on 23 November 1881 on Saint Vincent in the Windward Islands, where he spent much of his childhood. He was educated at the Forest School, Snaresbrook, and received his medical training at St Thomas's Hospital, London, where he became the hospital's light heavyweight boxing champion. He qualified in 1906 and two years later joined the Naval Medical Service as a surgeon, based at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, in Gosport, Hampshire. He was primarily a researcher, and had published a paper on gonorrhoeal rheumatismWheeler, p. 138 when he was appointed physician and parasitologist to the Terra Nova expedition.
On the Terra Nova Expedition
The Southern Journey
The Terra Nova departed from Cardiff on 15 June 1910. Atkinson was, for the most part, a trusted member of the expedition. According to Harry Pennell, a fellow member of the Terra Nova Expedition, he considered Atkinson as "an out and out gentleman with the quiet self-assurance that makes a man without making him offensive". However, Pennell also privately observed that Atkinson could also "take a dislike to someone on very short acquaintance on very insufficient grounds." The Terra Nova departed from New Zealand on 29 November 1910 and would arrive in the territory of Ross Island in January 1911.
Atkinson spent the winter at Cape Evans base camp mainly doing scientific work. Eleven days before Scott's teams set off towards the pole, Scott gave the dog driver Meares the following written orders at Cape Evans dated 20 October 1911 to secure Scott's speedy return from the pole using dogs:
The march south began on 1 November 1911, and Atkinson departed south with Scott's team, first as a pony leader and later as a man-hauler. The dogs with their dog-driver Meares turned back to base before the ascent of the Beardmore Glacier. By this time, it was becoming likely that Meares would leave the expedition, and Scott reminded Atkinson of the orders concerning the dogs: "with the depot (of dog food) that has been laid at One Ton, come as far as you can". Atkinson and others accompanied Scott during the ascent of the Beardmore Glacier. On 22 December, at the glacier summit, lat. 85deg7'S, Atkinson returned to base with the First Support Party,Cherry-Garrard, Wright and Keohane reaching Cape Evans on 29 January 1912 after a generally straightforward journey.SLE Vol 1 Appendix, p. 28 – Atkinson's report
In charge at Cape Evans
On his return to Cape Evans, Atkinson took command.Atkinson was the senior (in fact the only) Naval officer present, since Scott and Lt Evans were southbound and Campbell was away with the Northern party He learned that the chief dog driver, Cecil Meares, had resigned from the expedition,There are differing accounts as to why Meares resigned. Huntford (p. 435) claims a row with Scott: Fiennes (p. 340) says Meares had to return to England to deal with his late father's affairs was waiting for the ship to take him home and was "not available" for Barrier work. In any case, neither Meares nor anyone else replenished the dog food in the depots. At the beginning of February, the Terra Nova arrived, and Atkinson directed Polar team members to unload supplies, mules and fresh dogs from the Terra Nova, rather than set off with the dogs to meet Scott. In his book The Worst Journey in the World (1922), Cherry-Garrard called this decision a "mistake". In his 1948 "Postscript" to this book, published in the edition of 1951, Cherry-Gerrard elaborated: "In October Scott issued certain orders: those for the dogs are dated October 20. In these original orders for the dog teams under Meares [...] The third journey was to start about the first week of February " (p. 583). Then, on page 588, Cherry-Garrard writes: "We reached Cape Evans on January 28. In my opinion he [Atkinson] would not have been fit to take out the dogs in the first week of February".
On 13 February, finally Atkinson arrived at Hut Point with the dog assistant, the Russian Dimitri Gerov and the dogs to avoid being cut off by disintegrating sea ice. Atkinson and Gerov were delayed by bad weather at Hut Point when, on 19 February, Tom Crean arrived on foot from the Barrier and reported that Lt Edward Evans was lying seriously ill in a tent some 35 miles to the south, and in urgent need of rescue.Evans, Lashly and Crean had formed the final Support Party which had left Scott on 3 January. Lashly had stayed on the Barrier to nurse Evans while Crean walked to Hut Point. Both were awarded Albert (lifesaving) medals Atkinson decided that this mission was his priority and, during a break in the weather, set out with the dogs to bring Evans back. This was achieved and the party was back at Hut Point on 22 February.E Evans: South with Scott p. 245 Collins 1953
Atkinson sent a note back to the Cape Evans base camp requesting either the meteorologist Wright or Cherry-Garrard to take over the task of meeting Scott with the dogs. Chief meteorologist Simpson however was unwilling to release Wright from his scientific work, and Atkinson therefore selected Apsley Cherry-Garrard. It was still not in Atkinson's mind that Cherry-Garrard's was a relief mission, and according to Cherry-Garrard's account, told him to 'use his judgement' as to what to do in the event of not meeting the polar party by One Ton, and that Scott's orders were that the dogs must not be risked. Cherry-Garrard left with Gerov and the dogs on 26 February, carrying extra rations for the polar party to be added to the depot and 24 days' of dog food. They arrived at One Ton depot on 4 March and did not proceed further south. Instead, he and Gerov decided to feed the dog food generously to the dogs, and after waiting there for Scott for several days, apparently mostly in blizzard conditions (although no blizzard was recorded by Scott some 100 miles further south until 10 March), they returned to Hut Point on 16 March, in poor physical condition and without news of the polar party.
On 17 March, Cherry-Garrard notes in his diary that the base camp members were "anxious" about the Polar party's welfare, and on 26 March Atkinson set out with Patrick Keohane (and without the dogs) on a further attempt to pick up Scott's team. They were able to proceed only to Corner Camp before the weather defeated them on 30 March. At that point, Atkinson recorded, "I was morally certain that the polar party had perished".Atkinson in SLE Vol II p. 309
Before the full onset of winter Atkinson led yet another journey, this time an attempted rescue of the Northern party, which was known to have been set ashore in the region of Evans Coves, some 200 miles north of Cape Evans.This party had originally planned to explore eastward but had changed direction after encountering Amundsen in the Bay of Whales (SLE Vol II p. 85). It returned to Cape Evans and departed with the ship for the North on 9 February 1911 The rescue party set out from Hut Point on 17 April, but they were not able to travel beyond Butter Point at the mouth of the Ferrar Glacier.Atkinson's report in SLE Vol II pp. 310–316 The subsequent winter at Cape Evans was a difficult and tense time for the depleted expedition crew, but Atkinson maintained a programme of scientific and leisure activities, and managed to hold morale. As winter ended they faced a dilemma: should they first seek to establish the fate of the polar party, or try again to rescue the Northern party? They chose the former course.Apparently this decision was almost unanimous, with one abstention. Wheeler, p. 141, says the abstainer was Lashly, while Solomon, p. 258, suggests it was Cherry-Garrard.
Scott's tent found On 29 October 1912 Atkinson led a party, with dogs and mulesNine mules, a gift from the Indian Government, had been landed from the Terra Nova during its March 1912 interim visit, together with snowshoes and blinkers which, according to Atkinson (SLE Vol II p. 321) rendered them much more efficient than the previous year's ponies. Wheeler, however (p. 143), says the mules were not a success to begin the search for traces of the polar party. On 12 November, 11 miles to the south of One Ton Depot, the tent containing the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers was discovered. Atkinson found Scott's diary and learned the story of the disaster; he then read to the assembled men the relevant sections including those recording the deaths of PO Evans and Captain Oates. A further march south, in search of Oates's body, found only his sleeping bag. On their return to Hut Point on 25 November the search party learned of the safe return of the Northern Party, at which point Victor Campbell, as senior officer, assumed the leadership.
Controversy: Orders concerning dogs While in command of the base during the critical February–March 1912 period, Atkinson had to execute Scott's instructions about how the dogs were to be employed after their return from the Barrier stage of the polar journey.
However, Scott's orders concerning exactly how the dogs be used did vary, or at least appear to be unclear. In orders to George Simpson and Meares immediately before his departure south, Scott ordered that after their return from accompanying the polar journey the dogs make a second journey over the barrier "to transport to One Ton Camp 5 "XS"XS = "Extra Summit". One XS ration was a week's supply of food for four men rations, or at all hazards 3,....and as much dog food as they can carry",Seaver, p. 30 (I have italicised words relating to the laying of the dog food depot) this to be done by 12 January 1912. He also instructed Meares to take the dogs on a third journey over the barrier in early February. It is his orders concerning this journey that appear to be confused: it was initially planned merely to hasten the return of the polar party (in order to give them a chance of catching the ship), and not as a relief mission. However, the instructions Scott gave to Atkinson when the latter turned for home at the top of the Beardmore glacier, were for the dogs to "come as far as they can." Unfortunately, Scott did not clarify his purpose (nor was he asked to – this was a Naval expedition), but perhaps at that stage he was anticipating that the dogs might be needed to see him home.
Meares' resignation from the expedition and unavailability for further work on the barrier resulted in plans being changed, and Scott complicated the situation by taking the dogs much further on the polar journey than had been originally planned, so that they were not back at base until 5 January: the dogs' second barrier journey was never made, and although the minimum 3 XS rations were duly depoted (by a man-hauling party comprising Day, Hooper, Clissold and Nelson), the dog food never was. This may have been due to an oversight, a misunderstanding, a lack of communication, disobedience, or so as not to exhaust the men: the supplies were intended to be transported by dogs (see below). The significance of this omission was only apparent laterWheeler, p. 161, and Cherry-Garrard's suspicions of a cover-up – it meant that any future movement of the dogs south of One Ton, for rescue purposes or otherwise, would be problematic.