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Edward William Nelson (1893 - 1923): Captain Scott's biologist
Edward William Nelson was a British biologist, polar explorer and navy soldier who conducted pioneering scientific work during Sir Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica.

Early Life

Born in London, Edward was the son of the eminent microscopist Edward Milles Nelson and Laura Blanche Matilda Bruce, daughter of John Bruce of Sandwick, scion of the Bruces of Sumburgh, one of the oldest and wealthiest landowning families in the Shetland Isles.

Edward attended two celebrated UK public schools - Clifton in Bristol, and Tonbridge in Kent. He studied biology at Christ's College, Cambridge, the alma mater of Charles Darwin.

The British Antarctic Expedition: 1910 - 1913

While at Cambridge, Nelson met Edward A Wilson, who subsequently recruited the younger man as the biologist on Sir Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated 1910-1913 British Antarctic Expedition, also known as the Terra Nova Expedition after the name of its supply ship.

Glimpses of life on the outward leg of the sea voyage on board Terra Nova reveal Edward Nelson to have acquired two nicknames - 'Marie Ducat' and Antonio the Immaculate, the latter because he insisted on always wearing a clean collar for dinner.

He was also nicknamed 'Bronte' in reference to ****************, no relation, having been granted the title ******* of Bronte and heneceforth signing off his correspondence with the signature 'Nelson & Bronte'.

During the expedition, Nelson conducted

In November 1912, Nelson was one of the search party that discovered the frozen bodies on Scott, Edward A Wilson and ***** *****, who had all died, probably at the end of March, in their trek back from reaching the South Pole.

It was a blow to find the body of Wilson, his mentor. "****************," according to Nelson's daughter, Barbara Johns.

Tragedy and hardship notwithstanding, Nelson was one of the few who volunteered to stay on at Cape Evans into 1913 under the leadership of ********************.

On his return to the United Kingdom, he married Violet Helen Thomas in Plymouth, Devon, in late 1913 and continued his scientific work at the Marine Biological Association.

World War I

Death

After the war, Edward resumed work at the Marine Biological Association before moving to Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1922 when he was appointed Scientific Superintedent of the Fishery Board of Scotland and oversaw work at their marined laboratory at Nigg.

Tragically, he died at the relatively young age of 39 in January 1923, his body being found at the laboratory's fish hatchery in Aberdeen.

Postscript

In February 2009, Edward's daughter Barbara, by then aged 93, set sail from New Zealand on a personal pilgrimage to see Antarctica and to visit Scott's Hut in homage to her father.