I Am Just Going Outside: Michael Smith

The Antarctic tragedy of Captain Oates. On March 17, 1912, he crawled from a tent to his death in blizzard conditions of -40 degrees Celsius. He had always been an outsider on Scott's Polar expedition. He died on his 32nd birthday, unaware that his daughter had been born. This is the first major biography of Lawrence Edward Grace "Titus" Oates, who became a dashing cavalry officer and hero in the Boer War, a successful jockey and, having paid £1,000 to join Scott's doomed South Pole expedition, became a national hero for sacrificing himself to save his comrades. Fresh analysis is offered of his military career, both as hero in the Boer War, where he was denied a VC, and later in Ireland. This book tells of his early life and school days; and the role of his austere mother who exerted a powerful influence during his life and who continued to control her son long after his death: on her deathbed she ordered the destruction of his letters and diaries that she had hidden and believed to have been destroyed long since...all of which sheds new light on his possible motives for joining the expedition.