On This Day March 17, 1912.

Lawrence Oates, of Scott's ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic, utters his famous last words: 'I am just going outside and I may be some time.'
 

Robert Falcon Scott, born in 1868, was a Royal Naval officer and explorer who commanded the National Antarctic Expedition in Discovery which began in 1900. In December 1902, Scott's expedition reached the farthest point south of any known exploration party. Following new discoveries in the Antarctic region, Scott was keen to be the first to reach the South Pole. He took with him Lieutenant Henry Bowers, Dr Edward Wilson, Petty Officer Edgar Evans and army Captain Lawrence Oates. Upon reaching the Pole on 17 January 1912, he found that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten him to it by just one month.

Scott's party made slow progress, due to a combination of particularly severe weather, and their own determination to forge ahead laden with their rock samples. Evans died after a fall which resulted in a quick physical and mental breakdown. Lawrence Oates lost a foot to frostbite and was suffering residual effects of an old war wound. Oates is remembered as the consummate British sacrificial hero as, feeling he was holding the party back, he departed their shelter one morning, uttering the famous words, "I am just going outside and I may be some time." This was on 17 March 1912. He did not return. The bodies of the remaining three members of Scott's party were found in their camp on 10 February 1913, just twenty kilometres from a substantial depot of supplies. With them were their diaries detailing their journey and their demise.