Robert Falcon Scott Statue Portsmouth

Images of Britain: Statue of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Portsmouth

A statue of the explorer Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) stands near Porter's Lodge / Victory Gate inside the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

The work was sculpted by his own widow, Lady Kathleen Scott, and features a powerful, authentic inscription from his final Antarctic journal.

The bronze figure and Grade II listed monument is life size and shows Scott accompanied by one of his expedition dogs. It was commissioned by the Commanding Officer and officers of HMS Vernon (a shore establishment of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth) as a tribute from the naval command. The statue was unveiled in 1915.

It features a famous quote from his last diary written before he and his team perished returning from the South Pole in 1912: "The gale is howling about us; we are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey..."

Scott was born in Plymouth and joined the Royal Navy at just 13 and rose steadily through the ranks. He later led Britain's first major Antarctic exploration in generations aboard HMS Discovery, establishing a base, discovering the Polar Plateau and setting a record for reaching the farthest south.

He returned on the Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913) to claim the South Pole for Britain, competing against Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. On 17 January 1912, Scott and four companions reached the Pole, only to discover Amundsen had arrived first. Exhausted and battered by extreme conditions, all five men died on their 800-mile return journey, and their tent and journals were discovered by a search party eight months later.