OHYAT: The Memorial Service

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY


While the men of the Terra Nova Expedition were still getting reacquainted with trees and grass and civilisation in Christchurch, on the other side of the world, a memorial service was held at St Paul's Cathedral, London. The church was packed. Even the king attended. The nation and the Empire were deeply moved by the tragedy. The Sphere published a copiously illustrated memorial edition and there were calls for a monument to be built. It was similar mass-mourning to the previous year's Titanic disaster, a phenomenon facilitated by ubiquitous telegraph wires and the dispersal of Scott's moving and eloquent Message to the Public.

Kathleen Scott, on a ship from San Francisco to Christchurch to meet her returning husband, wouldn't receive the news until February 19th.

And so I bring the OHYATs to a close – everyone's stories continue, of course, some of them quite heroically, but the Expeditionary anniversaries are effectually at an end. Thanks to all you readers for following along with me, it's been quite the journey!