[An album of autographs including the signature of Cecil H. Meares].
[s.i.].
[s.n.], [1909-1919]
Contemporary green calf, lettered in gilt to upper board, A.E.G. Rubbed and sunned, text-block detached from binding.
An early twentieth century album of autographs, including the signature of British Army officer and explorer Cecil Henry Meares (1877-1937).
Throughout his remarkably adventurous life, Meares worked in the Siberian fur trade, was in Peking during the Boxer Uprising, served during the Second Boer War, traversed Tibet with the J. W. Brooke expedition, and was the officer in charge of sled dogs on Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913) - the British attempt to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole.
Meares and Scott clashed throughout the expedition; and it has been suggested by both contemporary commentators and modern scholarship that his conduct greatly impeded the progress of the expedition and the ultimately contributed to the demise of the polar party. The ponies that he had been tasked by Scott to purchase in Siberia were of inferior quality, this and his defiant refusal to obey direct orders on more than one occasion certainly did nothing to aid in the venture. Meares resigned from the expedition for unsubstantiated reasons and returned home on the Terra Nova in March 1912, mere days before the party would perish on their last march.
£ 950.00
Antiquates Ref: 29152
Throughout his remarkably adventurous life, Meares worked in the Siberian fur trade, was in Peking during the Boxer Uprising, served during the Second Boer War, traversed Tibet with the J. W. Brooke expedition, and was the officer in charge of sled dogs on Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913) - the British attempt to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole.
Meares and Scott clashed throughout the expedition; and it has been suggested by both contemporary commentators and modern scholarship that his conduct greatly impeded the progress of the expedition and the ultimately contributed to the demise of the polar party. The ponies that he had been tasked by Scott to purchase in Siberia were of inferior quality, this and his defiant refusal to obey direct orders on more than one occasion certainly did nothing to aid in the venture. Meares resigned from the expedition for unsubstantiated reasons and returned home on the Terra Nova in March 1912, mere days before the party would perish on their last march.
