Edgar Evans

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Edgar Evans

by Herbert George Ponting
gelatin silver print, 1911
15 1/4 in. x 12 in. (386 mm x 304 mm)
Purchased, 2010
Primary Collection
NPG P1365

Sitterback to top

  • Edgar Evans (1876-1912), Polar explorer; member of British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913. Sitter in 2 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Herbert George Ponting (1870-1935), Photographer and antarctic explorer. Artist or producer associated with 13 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

This portraitback to top

Strongly built, practical and cheerful, Petty Officer Evans was a natural choice to join Robert Scott on the 1660-mile return trek to the Pole. Following the disappointment of their arrival and suffering from malnutrition, a deep cut to the hand and severe frostbite, he collapsed on 17 February. He died later that day from a suspected brain haemorrhage.
Shortly before the final push for the Pole, Scott wrote affectionately of him: 'Edgar Evans has proved a useful member of our party; he looks after our sledges and sledge equipment with a care of management and a fertility of resource which is truly astonishing - on 'trek' he is just as sound and hard as ever and has an inexhaustible store of anecdote.'

Placesback to top

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Events of 1911back to top

Current affairs

Asquith's Liberal government introduces the Parliament Act to curb the powers of the House of Lords following the clash between the Commons and Lords over the 1909 People's Budget. The Act removed the Lords' power to veto bills, reduced the length of Parliament from seven to five years, and provided for the payment of MPs.

Art and science

Ernest Rutherford discovers the structure of the atom. The New Zealand born physicist working in Manchester showed with his Nuclear Model that electrons orbited a nucleus composed of protons and neutrons. The discovery paved the way for nuclear physics.

International

The Polish Chemist, Marie Curie, becomes the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for her discovery in 1898 of the radioactive element, Radon.
The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre. The masterpiece was missing for two years, during which time suspicion fell on avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire and his friend Pablo Picasso, before Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the Louvre, was arrested in Florence.

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