Cecil Henry Meares; Lawrence Oates

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- subject matching 'Fireplaces'

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Cecil Henry Meares; Lawrence Oates

by Herbert George Ponting
carbon print, 26 May 1911
18 in. x 13 1/2 in. (457 mm x 343 mm)
Purchased, 1979
Primary Collection
NPG P121

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Artistback to top

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

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Two of Captain Scott's companions on his last Antarctic expedition. Oates, nicknamed 'the soldier' and called by Scott 'the cheery old pessimist', was devoted to animals. Meares, a linguist, was taken on as an interpreter of Russian, and was also in charge of the dogs. The photograph shows them (Oates on the right) at the blubber-stove in the stable at the winter quarters at Cape Evans, where they were constantly seen cooking bran-mash for the ponies. Ponting was commissioned to film and photograph Scott's expedition. His experience is recorded in his book The Great White South (1921).

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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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