twenty-fourth birthday. He hurried to the main post office and discovered among his mail a reply from Wilson on British National Antarctic Expedition notepaper. It was dated 8 December 1909. ‘My dear Cherry-Garrard,’ wrote Wilson:
Your letter duly reached me and I have discussed your proposal with Captain Scott as with Reginald Smith . . . The facts are these. Scott thinks that it is just possible that when we have filled up the actual scientific staff with the necessary experts in each branch, there may still be a vacancy for an adaptable helper, such as I am sure you would be; ready to lend a hand where it was wanted. Only, I must frankly say that as it is a matter of real importance in these shore parties to reduce numbers to a minimum, the reverse may be possible and there may be no room for any but the absolutely necessary staff.
If however you will allow the matter to stand over until you return, and if, after coming once more into closer touch with your home ties, you are still anxious to go, I can promise that your application will not have been forgotten, and will not have suffered by the waiting. Only at present it is quite impossible to make you any promise – I wish it were otherwise – and you must be prepared for disappointment. I am delighted to hear that you are enjoying your travels.
From the start, Wilson was unequivocal in his support. During their Scottish sojourn he had been impressed by Apsley’s intelligence, enthusiasm and sensitivity, and by the time he received the younger man’s formal application the foundations of their friendship were in place. Besides his natural affection, Wilson was influenced by his deep loyalty to Apsley’s cousin. ‘I am biased in favour of anyone who is a friend of Reginald Smith’s,’ he wrote, ‘and you are more than that.’
When he received Wilson’s letter, Apsley immediately wrote to Reggie, who replied on 3 February.
Dr Wilson is up to his ears with work and yet makes time to pay me constant visits and so does Captain Scott. They are getting on very well with their preparations and everything points to the
Terra Nova
[the expedition ship] starting in June . . . it looks as if should they not get to the Pole in the next two years they will stay on and make a third effort. ‘We are going to get there this time’, they say.
I need not say that your keen ambition to go is very much in my thoughts. And it will be a question which you only can decide whether you can ask your Mother to make the sacrifice which your going will mean to her. Apart from this there seem to me many reasons and inducements for you taking part in the venture if they can have you . . . Take good care of yourself and ‘haste ye back’ as you know we say in Scotland.
The rest of Apsley’s mail revealed widespread anxiety over the January 1910 general election, an event precipitated by the refusal of the House of Lords to pass Lloyd George’s land-taxing budget the previous December. Apsley watched anxiously, via out-of-date newspapers in steamy expatriate drawing rooms, as the authority of the Lords was pitted against Liberal reforms, the latter including a graduated income tax culminating in a supertax on all incomes over £5,000. Power was shifting away from the landed estates and into London, a process which irritated Apsley intensely from start to finish. Taxation hurt, and like most middle- and large-scale landowners he protested indignantly at government plans to fund the desperately needed social reform programme with a little of his money; but the way the country was abandoning the status quo distressed him more profoundly.
The traveller returned at the beginning of April, six weeks earlier than his mother had expected. He had sailed across the Pacific to San Francisco, where he watched seals playing on the rocks outside the harbour and wondered if he would shortly be seeing a great deal more of them. But he abandoned plans to travel in California, anxious that
Your letter duly reached me and I have discussed your proposal with Captain Scott as with Reginald Smith . . . The facts are these. Scott thinks that it is just possible that when we have filled up the actual scientific staff with the necessary experts in each branch, there may still be a vacancy for an adaptable helper, such as I am sure you would be; ready to lend a hand where it was wanted. Only, I must frankly say that as it is a matter of real importance in these shore parties to reduce numbers to a minimum, the reverse may be possible and there may be no room for any but the absolutely necessary staff.
If however you will allow the matter to stand over until you return, and if, after coming once more into closer touch with your home ties, you are still anxious to go, I can promise that your application will not have been forgotten, and will not have suffered by the waiting. Only at present it is quite impossible to make you any promise – I wish it were otherwise – and you must be prepared for disappointment. I am delighted to hear that you are enjoying your travels.
From the start, Wilson was unequivocal in his support. During their Scottish sojourn he had been impressed by Apsley’s intelligence, enthusiasm and sensitivity, and by the time he received the younger man’s formal application the foundations of their friendship were in place. Besides his natural affection, Wilson was influenced by his deep loyalty to Apsley’s cousin. ‘I am biased in favour of anyone who is a friend of Reginald Smith’s,’ he wrote, ‘and you are more than that.’
When he received Wilson’s letter, Apsley immediately wrote to Reggie, who replied on 3 February.
Dr Wilson is up to his ears with work and yet makes time to pay me constant visits and so does Captain Scott. They are getting on very well with their preparations and everything points to the
Terra Nova
[the expedition ship] starting in June . . . it looks as if should they not get to the Pole in the next two years they will stay on and make a third effort. ‘We are going to get there this time’, they say.
I need not say that your keen ambition to go is very much in my thoughts. And it will be a question which you only can decide whether you can ask your Mother to make the sacrifice which your going will mean to her. Apart from this there seem to me many reasons and inducements for you taking part in the venture if they can have you . . . Take good care of yourself and ‘haste ye back’ as you know we say in Scotland.
The rest of Apsley’s mail revealed widespread anxiety over the January 1910 general election, an event precipitated by the refusal of the House of Lords to pass Lloyd George’s land-taxing budget the previous December. Apsley watched anxiously, via out-of-date newspapers in steamy expatriate drawing rooms, as the authority of the Lords was pitted against Liberal reforms, the latter including a graduated income tax culminating in a supertax on all incomes over £5,000. Power was shifting away from the landed estates and into London, a process which irritated Apsley intensely from start to finish. Taxation hurt, and like most middle- and large-scale landowners he protested indignantly at government plans to fund the desperately needed social reform programme with a little of his money; but the way the country was abandoning the status quo distressed him more profoundly.
The traveller returned at the beginning of April, six weeks earlier than his mother had expected. He had sailed across the Pacific to San Francisco, where he watched seals playing on the rocks outside the harbour and wondered if he would shortly be seeing a great deal more of them. But he abandoned plans to travel in California, anxious that
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