Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Wilson, Edward Adrian
WILSON, EDWARD ADRIAN (1872–1912), naturalist and Antarctic explorer, was born at Cheltenham 23 July 1872, the second son and fifth child of Edward Thomas Wilson, M.B., consulting physician to the Cheltenham General Hospital, by his wife, Mary Agnes, daughter of Bernhard Whishaw, of Hadleigh, Suffolk. After his early education at Cheltenham College he entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1891. He was chiefly interested in zoology, which he read for the natural science tripos, taking his B.A. degree in 1894. Later he went to St. George's Hospital, London, to study medicine. During his residence in London his wide human sympathies found outlet in strenuous work at the Caius College mission in Battersea. A breakdown in health compelled him to go abroad for some time, but after making a complete recovery he returned to his medical studies and qualified M.B., B.C. (Cambridge) in 1900.
In the same year Wilson applied for a post on the National Antarctic expedition under Commander Robert Falcon Scott, R.N. [q.v.], and was appointed junior surgeon with special work in vertebrate zoology. The Discovery left England in August 1901 and spent over two years in the Ross Sea, being frozen into McMurdo Sound from February 1902 to February 1904. Owing to the customary good health on modern polar expeditions Wilson's medical duties were light, and he was able to devote his time to zoological research and to the preparation of many striking paintings of Antarctic scenery. His researches into the habits and breeding of Emperor penguins were of special importance. In the summer of 1901–1902 Wilson took part with Commander R. F. Scott and (Sir) Ernest Henry Shackleton in the southward sledge journey over the ice barrier to lat. 82° 16′ 33″ S. Cape Wilson, on the edge of the plateau, marks the highest latitude reached. Symptoms of scurvy and the breakdown of Shackleton made the return journey difficult. After the return of the expedition to England, Wilson prepared the monograph on the mammals and birds observed and collected. In 1905 he served on the royal commission on grouse disease, and he was the author of various papers in the published report. He also prepared many of the illustrations for G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton's History of British Mammals (1910).
In 1910 Scott invited Wilson to join his new Antarctic expedition in the Terra Nova as chief of the scientific staff. The value of the detailed exploration and researches in Victoria Land made by this expedition were overshadowed by the loss of the entire party of five on the return journey from the Pole (February–March 1912). From the expedition's base at Cape Evans, Wilson, with Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Lieutenant H. R. Bowers, R.I.M., made a remarkable five weeks' journey (June to August 1911) to Cape Crozier and back in mid-winter darkness, fierce blizzards, and temperatures as low as -70° F., in order to obtain chicks of the Emperor penguin. The journey was a great test of endurance and proved Wilson's perfect fitness. The journey to the Pole began 1 November 1911. After the last supporting party returned, from lat. 86° 32′ S., Scott had with him Wilson, Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates [q.v.], Lieutenant Bowers, and Petty Officer Edgar Evans. The Pole was reached 18 January 1912. On the return journey the party was delayed by difficult surface conditions, strong winds, and low temperatures. Evans died 17 February, and Oates heroically sacrificed himself when he saw that his weak condition impeded his comrades' progress; but eventually, overcome by bad weather and lack of food, Scott, Wilson, and Bowers perished on or about 29 March in lat. 79° 40′ S. The bodies were found in the following November by a search-party from the base, and buried beneath a cairn of snow, surmounted by a cross. Scott's diaries speak in terms of warm praise of Wilson's courage and steadfastness in the face of all difficulties: he was one of the most valued and best loved members of the expedition.
Wilson received the Polar medal (1904) and posthumously (1913) the Patron's medal of the Royal Geographical Society. Some of his paintings are in the house of the Royal Geographical Society. A statue of him, the work of Lady Scott, stands on the Promenade, Cheltenham.
Wilson married in 1901 Oriana Fanny, daughter of the Rev. Francis Abraham Souper, of Bedford, and had no children.
[R. F. Scott, The Voyage of the Discovery, 1905; Scott's Last Expedition, ed. L. Huxley, 1913; A. Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, 1922; British Medical Journal, 22 February 1913; Geographical Journal, March and April 1913; private information.]