Our third clue celebrated the bravery of Captain Lawrence Oates, the man who walked out into the blizzard so as to try and save the lives of his fellow men. In the end none of them survived. This is a lovely set, and I much prefer it to John Player`s "Polar Exploration" (1915).
This cairn was erected by the search party, led by the surgeon Edward Atkinson, in November 1912. That is pretty close to the decision to issue this set, though there is the sense that they were hoping maybe someone would be found alive - and they were not. As it says on this card, the bodies of Scott, Wilson, and Bowers were actually found by the search party, but were not brought back. The intention was to do so, and another cairn was built by or maybe over them as a marker; however there was no trace of the cairn when a party did return.
The body of Captain Oates was never found - nor was that of fellow explorer Edgar Evans, who had died in February, of a head injury, after a fall.
Our British Trade Index part I, (RB.25, printed in 1962), covers all known non-tobacco cards that were issued before 1945. This set falls under section 1 of the Fry listing, "issues 1908 - 1917" and is described as : "WITH CAPTAIN SCOTT AT THE SOUTH POLE. Sm. 65 x 36. Nd. (25)"
A similar description appears in our updated volume but usefully inserts the date, 1913, in place of the word "Sm."