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Edward Adrian Wilson

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Edward Adrian Wilson

by Herbert George Ponting
gelatin silver print, 19 May 1911
12 1/4 in. x 15 1/4 in. (311 mm x 388 mm)
Purchased, 2010
Primary Collection
NPG P1366

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

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

This portraitback to top

Wilson was the head of the scientific staff of the Terra Nova expedition, having previously served on Scott's Discovery expedition. He was a talented field naturalist with a keen ability to sketch his observations. This photograph shows him finishing a watercolour of the atmospheric effects caused by the extreme cold.
The final pages of Scott's journal included a letter to Mrs Wilson: 'If this letter reaches you Bill and I will have gone out together. We are very near it now and I should like you to know how splendid he was at the last - everlastingly cheerful and ready to sacrifice himself for others, never a word of blame to me for leading him into this mess… he died as he lived, a brave, true man - the best of comrades and the staunchest of friends.'

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

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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