Ots, Lawrence

Lawrence Oats was born in Putney, a southern suburb of London , in 1880 . He was the son of William and Caroline Oats (nee Caroline Bacton ^[4] ) had a sister, Lillian, who was one year older than him ^[5] . Oats was a descendant of the wealthy landowners Essex and Yorkshire ^[6] , some of his ancestors fought at the Battle of Hastings ^[6] , and the family tree illustrated family ties for nearly ten centuries ^[4] . Uncle Ots was a naturalist and explorer in Africa, Frank Ots. Lawrence lived in Putney from 1885 to 1891 , aged 5 to 11, at Upper Richmond Road, 263. He was one of the first students at Willington Prep on the corner of Colinette Road . He received further education at the South Lynn School in Eastbourne ^[7] , after which he entered Eton College ^[4] . The college did not provide higher education, and its absence is mainly associated with dyslexia ^[4] . In the circle of acquaintances, Ots had the nickname Titus Ots , and in the family circle - just Lori ^[4] . During the Terra Nova expedition, his comrades often referred to him as a Soldier . Oats was a big fan of Napoleon ^[8] , despite the rivalry between Britain and France after the Napoleonic Wars . At the base camp of the future Terra Nova expedition, Ots hung his portrait ^[8] .

In 1898, Ots joined the third reserve battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment . During the Boer War, he served as a junior officer in the elite 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoon Regiment where he entered on April 6, 1900 ^[9] . In March 1901 , during the Boer War, Oats was ambushed and was shot in the thigh. To the offer to surrender, he refused, for which he later received the nickname " Not Surrendering " and the most honorable battle award of the British Army - Victoria Cross ^[10] . However, this wound led to the fact that the left leg of Ots was an inch shorter than the right. Due to his wound, Ots was sent to the UK for treatment, but was able to return to the front even before the end of the war ^[11] . In 1902 he was promoted to lieutenant, served in Egypt , India ^[11] . In 1906 he became captain ^[4] .

Ots ’biography,“ I Will Go Out: Captain Ots - The Antarctic Tragedy, ”written by Michael Smith and published by Spellmount Publisher s in 2002 , claims that as a result of sexual intercourse between 20-year-old Ots and 11-year-old Scottish girl Ettie Mackendrick, the latter had a daughter, the existence of which Ots himself did not know ^{[10] [12]} .

In 1910, Lawrence Oats filed an application for joining the expedition of Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole , and was accepted mainly because of his experience with horses and, to a lesser extent, because of his ability to make a financial contribution of £ 1000 ^[13] to the expedition fund. The role of Ots was to take care of nineteen Manchu horses, which Scott intended to use for transporting goods during the first stage - laying down transshipment camps, and at the beginning of the campaign of the main group to the pole. Ultimately, Scott chose Ots as one of the five people who entered the main group, designed to conquer the South Pole.

Oats often criticized Scott's decisions regarding expedition management. “ They annoyed each other greatly, ” another expeditionary recalled later. When Ots first saw the horses that were purchased for the expedition, he was horrified: "the largest herd of nags I have ever seen " and later wrote: " Scott 's enlightenment regarding the trip with animals is enormous ." He also wrote in his diary: “ I strongly dislike Scott and would have given up all this if it had not happened that we are a British expedition ... He [Scott] is not straightforward, he is the first to rest, the rest are not at all .” But Ots also noted that his harsh words were often caused by harsh conditions. Scott described Ots as a “ jolly old pessimist ” and added: “The soldier sees everything in gloomy tones, but I know that this is just his peculiarity .” On his way to the pole, Scott gave Ots the following characterization:

Ots was indispensable when ponies were alive ^[14] . Now he has shown himself to be an excellent walker, he goes all the time with the full calculation, participates on a par with the camps and suffers all the hardships no worse than any of us. I would not want to stay without him. Perhaps our five so happily picked up that it is impossible to imagine the best ^[15] .

Trekking to the Pole

Captain Scott, Captain Ots, and 14 other expedition members left the base camp at Cape Evans to the pole on November 1, 1911 . During an 895-mile journey to predetermined locations, the expedition members turned back, delivering the necessary supplies for laying the next transshipment camp. January 4, 1912 at 87 ° 32 'S Scott made the decision as to who would make the main jerk to the pole, located 167 miles south. These people became: Robert Scott, Edward Wilson , Henry Bowers , Edgar Evans and Lawrence Ots. Ots until the last was sure that he, a simple soldier without any special skills, would not be lucky enough to enter the main group. Scott biographer Harry Ludlam believes that Robert Falcon was so attached to all five that he simply could not decide to leave any of them. They also believe that " Ots won the right to go to the pole with his caring and thorough care of the pony " ^[17] .

January 17 ^[18] 1912, 78 days after the start of the campaign, they finally reached the pole, but only in order to find there the camp of the Norwegian explorer Royal Amundsen , many human and dog tracks. Inside a Amundsen tent, a note was found addressed to Scott, in which it was reported that the Norwegian expedition reached the pole on December 14, 1911, that is, 35 days before Scott arrived with his companions.

Return Way

Scott's group was facing a lot of difficulties on the way back. Extremely adverse weather conditions, poor nutrition, injuries from falls, the effects of scurvy , snow blindness and frostbite - all this significantly slowed their progress. On February 17, 1912, at the foot of the Bridmore Glacier , Edgar Evans died, according to his companions, from the consequences of a strong blow to the head received when Edgar fell into the crack a few days earlier ^[20] . Ots' legs and nose were severely frostbite, and it was suggested (but never confirmed) that his military wound was reopened due to the effects of scurvy. Oats was tired faster than his companions. His slow progress and the categorical unwillingness of the comrades to leave Ots caused a serious lag behind the schedule. There was an average of 65 miles of travel between the transshipment camps, which contained a weekly supply of food and fuel, meaning that expeditioners had to travel more than 9 miles a day to save supplies for the final 400 miles of their trek across the ice shelf Ross . However, 9 miles a day was their best result for the whole trip, and towards the end of the path the distance traveled began to decrease to 3 miles due to the deterioration of the Ots state. On March 15, he told the satellites that he could no longer walk and asked to leave him with a sleeping bag on the glacier, which they refused to do. He walked a few more miles that day, but by night his condition worsened even more ^[21] .

Contrary to Ots's hope, he simply did not wake up on the morning of March 16 ^{[1] [19]} , on the eve of his birthday, he woke up and, realizing the situation, confident in the need to sacrifice himself in the name of a chance to save the others, crawled out of the tent without shoes ^{[ 22]} with the words addressed to their companions: “Just go out into the air. Maybe I won’t be back soon ” ^{[2] [23]} . Outside the tent, a blizzard raged, and the temperature dropped below −40 ° C. Lawrence Ots's body was never found.

The search party in November 1912 installed a cairn near the place where Ots was supposedly parted with life. The inscription on the pyramid reads:

Nearby, a very valiant gentleman, Captain L. E. Ots from the Inniskilling Dragoon Regiment, died. In March 1912, on his way back from the pole, he voluntarily went to death in a snowstorm to try to save his comrades, caught in trouble. ^{[24] [25]}

• Near the alleged place of death of Ots, members of a search expedition in November 1912 erected a hury and erected a small cross in memory of Lawrence Ots ^{[24] [25]} .
• The members of the rescue expedition over the resting place of the last members of the campaign to the South Pole erected a pyramid of ice and snow, and the inscription on the established cross contained the words ^[25] :

Also in memory of their two valiant comrades, the captain of the Inniskilling Dragoon Regiment, L.E. J. Ots, who went to death in a blizzard about eighteen miles south of this point to save his comrades; also the sailor Edgar Evans, who died at the foot of Beardmore Glacier. "God gave, God also took, blessedly the name of the Lord."

• The part of the northern coast of Victoria Land in East Antarctica , discovered by the Terra Nova expedition and having a length of 600 kilometers, was called the Ots Coast .
• Ots Museum at Gilbert White House in Selborn, Hampshire . Dedicated to the life of Lawrence Ots and his uncle - Frank Ots ^[26] .
• Ots’s buckskin sleeping bag was restored and now on display at the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum, along with other items from the expedition.
• The Ots Medal for South Africa with leopards and the Polar Medal are now kept at the Royal Guards Dragoons Museum in York ^{[27] [28]} .
• In 1913, a monument to Otsu was erected by the officer fraternity in the parish church of St. Mary of the Virgin in the village of Gestingthorpe, Essex . The church is opposite his family's house in the Gestingthorpe hall.
• Lawrence Ots School opened in Manwood, Leeds County. The school was closed in 1992 ^[29] . Near the church of the Holy Trinity, a monument was erected in memory of Ots.

Also, the memory of Lawrence Ots is immortalized on many monuments erected in honor of all five dead members of the Terra Nova expedition.

• The British artist and illustrator John Charles Dollman at the beginning of the 20th century created an illustration of the death of Ots, giving it the title " Very Valiant Gentleman ."
• In the movie Scott from the Antarctic, shot in 1948 , the role of Ots was played by actor Derek Bond.
• In 1985, the premiere of the mini-series " Last Place on Earth " produced by the BBC , based on the book " Scott and Amundsen " (1979) by biographer and journalist Roland Huntford . The role of Ots was played by actor Richard Moran ^[30] .
• Based on the ending of the Terra Nova expedition in 1941, Douglas Stewart produced a radio play in the poems “ Fire in the Snow ”. The premiere audition took place in 1944 . The role of Ots was voiced by actor Lou Vernon.
• The science fiction novel “ It may take some time ” by the writer Brenda Clough was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. It tells how Ots was moved to 2045 , where he was healed thanks to the skills of the doctors of the future. This story formed the basis of her later novel, “ Revise the World, ” where the action also focuses on former British Army captain Lawrence Ots.
• Terry Pratchett three times used the last words of Ots in his book series Flat World ^{[31] [32] [33]} .
• In the episode " Relieving Burden " of the British television series " Are You Being Served? "When employees discuss who should leave them, Captain Peacock tells the story of Scott's Antarctic expedition and Ots' sacrifice. To which Lucas remarks: " If this happened today, they would have eaten Captain Scott ."
• In the episode White Hole British television series Red Dwarf there is a detailed mention of Lawrence Ots in the dialogue.
• The poem " Antarctica " by Derek Mahun describes the last minutes of Ots's life. Four times in this work sounds the last words of Lawrence: “ I will only go out into the air and do not return right away .”
• In Frank Capra's “Airship,” about the American expedition to the South Pole in 1930, a fictional character played by actor Pokko Karn suffers injuries similar to those suffered by Lawrence Ots and wants to sacrifice himself in the same way, obviously inspired by the circumstances of Ots's death.
• British comedians Stuart Lee and Richard Herring made references to Captain Oats in their 1990s television series Fist of Fun and one of the BBC radio programs . In the original version of this parody sketch, Ots announces his departure in the hope that the satellites will try to dissuade him. In subsequent versions of the sketch, this episode is used in other social circumstances, where Oats announces his departure in the hope that others will understand his hints. One such example is the scene of Ots transferring potatoes at a dining table to another when he wanted to keep it for himself. After such sketches, Lee and Herring are sometimes referred to as " Captain Ots-Typical Figures ."
• The Spanish heavy metal band WarCry recorded the song Captain Lawrence , which describes the decision made by Lawrence to save his comrades
• The Spanish group Mecano in the song “ Heroes of Antarkida ” also tells about the fate of Ots and his companions.
• In a 1972 play by Tom Stoppard, two fictional British astronauts, Ots and Captain Scott, are described, whose spaceship was so damaged when it landed on the moon that it could break away from its surface with only one person on board. Scott and Ots fight among themselves for the right to get on the ship, and, having won, Scott closes the hatch, on the lid of which is visible the inscription: “ I'm leaving. Perhaps I will not be back soon . ”
• In Geraldine McCahrian's 2005 book White Darkness , teenage girl Simon Watts is obsessed with Captain Oats and even creates it in her imagination, where he is her friend.
• In the 2009 novel Margaret Atwood, “The Year of the Flood, ” the character Adam One refers to “ Saint Lawrence Titus Ots from the Scott expedition ” in a speech delivered among followers of the religious sect “ Gardeners of God .” One of the characters also bears the name Oates.

• Ots Coast
• Edgar Evans
• Эвард Уилсон
• Генри Бауэрс
• Роберт Фолкон Скотт
• Экспедиция «Терра Нова»

• Gilbert White's House and the Oates Museum
• Жизнь и смерть Лоуренса Отса — Ward's Book of Days
• Биография Лоуренса Отса