Overall: 24cm (9.5in) x 29.5cm (11.7in)
Silver gelatin photograph of Lieutenant Edward Evans, RN, second-in-command of Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910 Antarctic Expedition, and captain of the expedition ship Terra Nova. Printed from Herbert Ponting’s original negative. The subject is seen at a packing case table in the winter quarters hut at Cape Evans. Paul Popper Agency label verso confirming that these prints are 'made direct from the original negative’. Paul Popper acquired the rights to Herbert Ponting’s and Lieutenant ‘Birdie’ Bowers’ iconic photographs of Scott's expedition to the South Pole in 1935. Image 15cm (6in) x 20cm (8in). Framed and glazed.
Admiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans KCB, DSO, SGM (1880 – 1957) was seconded from the Navy to the Discovery expedition to Antarctica in 1901-1904. He afterwards began planning his own Antarctic expedition, but suspended his plan when offered the post of Scott’s second-in-command. He accompanied Scott to within 150 miles of the South Pole, but was sent back in command of the last supporting party. During the return journey he suffered acutely from scurvy and would have died had it not been for the efforts of his two companions William Lashly and Thomas Crean to sledge him back to base. He was invalided home in 1912 but returned in the Terra Nova in January 1913 to take charge during the last few weeks of the expedition.
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He spent the First World War as a destroyer captain, becoming famous as ‘Evans of the Broke’ for his part in the battle of Dover Strait in 1917. He commanded a cruiser at Hong Kong in 1921-22, where he was awarded a medal for his role in rescuing passengers from the wrecked vessel Hong Moh. He was successively appointed to the command of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, the Australian Squadron and the Africa Station before becoming Commander-in-Chief, The Nore. During the Second World War he served in a senior civil defence role, and after the German invasion of Norway he travelled there to liaise with King Haakon VII, a personal acquaintance. He was raised to the peerage in 1945, sitting in the House of Lords as a Labour member. His account of Scott’s last expedition was published in 1921 as ‘South with Scott’.