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Saturday, 12 April 2025

March Talk: Ann-Rachael Harwood on the Antarctic explorer Edward Wilson

 I was not able to attend the talk, so am including the information about the talk and then some photographs kindly taken by our Treasurer, Brigid Harkness used to illustrate the talk.

Ann-Rachael is a passionate Antarctic historian with a special interest in the life and work of Edward Adrian Wilson. She is a museum curator by training and had a varied career working at the Tower of London cataloguing cannon balls, to time at the old prison at Northleach, the Corinium Museum in Cirencester and lately at The Wilson in Cheltenham. Here, she encountered the work and writings of the naturalist, doctor, artist and Antarctic scientist Edward Adrian Wilson and became fascinated by the frozen southern continent. 

About the talk...

Edward Adrian Wilson (1872 to 1912) was born in Cheltenham, and spent his childhood roaming the hills and fields around the town, totally absorbed in the natural world when he was not at school. He pursued that love throughout his life, training as a Doctor but still sketching every living creature he came across from ant to elephant.  Wilson went on two expeditions with Scott to Antarctica, painting and drawing the landscape, mapping the coastline and mountains, capturing and dissecting natural history specimens and starting us off on our love affair with Emperor Penguins. He led a trip in the Southern winter to find out about the Emperor Penguins' breeding habits, now referred to as 'The Worst Journey in the World'. He was one of the 4 men picked to go to the South Pole with Scott but died on the return journey in 1912. His legacy lives on through the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust, the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Scott Polar Research Institute as well as the many amazing scenes he painted in Antarctica.....and Penguin biscuits!

The Wilson, Cheltenham's art gallery and museum was named after Edward Adrian Wilson.
The Crippetts in Leckhampton was somewhere Wilson used to go to immerse himself in nature and draw.

'That God should lay such beauty at our feet' is what the writing accompanying the drawings done one imagines from observations in the field.
Below a great photos of those on the expedition. They don't appear to be wearing very much clothing considering the conditions
This presumably is one of Wilson's paintings.
I'm sorry I missed the talk, Wilson sounds like a fascinating person who died at the early age of 40 in the Antarctic.

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