{"id":4739,"date":"2026-03-16T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=4739"},"modified":"2026-03-16T15:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:00:05","slug":"lawrence-oates-i-am-just-going-outside-and-may-be-some-time-march-16th-1912","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/lawrence-oates-i-am-just-going-outside-and-may-be-some-time-march-16th-1912\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawrence Oates: ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.\u2019\u00a0 March 16th 1912"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"photograph
Display of Antarctic Explorer’s Kit 1912 (reconstruction) at Gilbert White’s House in Hampshire {Photo K Flude). To illustrate Lawrence Oates self-sacrifice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This post is about Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates and his self-sacrifice, on going out to his death to give the other members of the Antarctic Expedition a chance of survival. ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.\u2019 he famously said\u00a0. But first, for subscribers to the email, the new section ‘On This Day.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On This Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1190<\/strong> – The Jewish Massacre at York. From 1189, anti-Jewish riots broke out as preparations for the Third Crusade were made. The rioters attempted to steal Jewish wealth, burn down their house, and forced conversion to Christianity. The unrest spread from Old Jewry in London to Ospringe<\/a>., King’s Lynn, Colchester,, Stamford, Bury St Edmunds., and Thetford,. The Jews of Lincoln took refuge in the Castle and survived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Reconstruction of York Castle, with Clifford’s Tower, originally made of wood, shown on the top of the Hill (photgraphed by KFlude from plaques on the displays nearby)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On March 16th, the Jews of York were attacked in their houses, and sought sanctuary in the Timber Keep of York Castle, known as Clifford’s Tower. Fearful of the willingness of the Sheriff of the County to ensure their survival, the community decided on mass suicide. Fathers, killed their children and wives, then killed themselves. The two leaders, then burnt down Clifford’s Tower and died. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1660<\/strong> – The Long Parliament finally dissolved. It was elected in 1642 called by Charles I, before the English Civil War, and survived to be revived to usher in the restored monarchy under Charles II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1872<\/strong> – the first Football Association Cup Final took place on the Cricket Ground, the Kennington Oval. The Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1:0. The Wanderers were founded by Public School Old boys from Harrow. It began in Leytonstone, in East London 1859, originally known as the “Forest Football Club”. But then wandered around a number of grounds until they made the Oval their semi-permanent home. The Club’s last game was against Clapton Pilgrims<\/a> in March 1872. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The only known Photo of the Wanderers from 1863. Public Domain, Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Engineers were soldiers from Chatham, Kent and according to Wikipedia were: ‘the first club to play a passing game of cooperation and organisation with both their forwards and their defence’. Also the first club to have the word ‘beautiful’ applied to their game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1956<\/strong> – Fake Finnish Saint St Urho invented as a rival to St Patrick’s Day. Just as Patrick banished snakes from Ireland, Urho (which means ‘hero’) banished frogs (or grasshoppers) saving the grape crop. He was invented in the States but is celebrated by a bar in Helsinki<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1968<\/strong> – the My Lai massacre, S\u01a1n M\u1ef9 village, Qu\u1ea3ng Ng\u00e3i province, perpetrated by US Troops, slaughtering over 300 unarmed villages. 26 soldiers faced charges but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr.<\/a> was convicted. He only served three and a half years of a life sentence (and that was served under house arrest).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main Source Chambers Book of Days & Wikipedia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oates Museum in Gilbert White’s House<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last year, I went to\u00a0Gilbert White’s House in Selborne. The naturalist’s House also houses the Oates Museum for Lawrence ‘Titus Oates’ and his uncle Frank. Oates was one of the ‘heroes’ I read about as a child. He epitomised what was sold as the British virtues of pluck, self-sacrifice, restraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is part of the story of Oates self-sacrifice over the days from February 29th to March 16th. 1912 as told in the diary of the commander of the expedition, Captain Scott:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, February 29th 1912<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lunch. Cold night. Minimum Temp. -37.5\u00b0; -30\u00b0 with north-west wind, force 4, when we got up. Frightfully cold starting; luckily Bowers and Oates in their last new finnesko; keeping my old ones for present. Expected awful march and for first hour got it. Then things improved and we camped after 5 1\/2 hours marching close to lunch camp\u201422 1\/2. Next camp is our depot and it is exactly 13 miles. It ought not to take more than 1 1\/2 days; we pray for another fine one. The oil will just about spin out in that event, and we arrive 3 clear days\u2019 food in hand. The increase of ration has had an enormously beneficial result. Mountains now looking small. Wind still very light from west\u2014cannot understand this wind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Scott’s Polar Institute Web Site<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A finnesko is ‘a boot of tanned<\/a> reindeer<\/a> skin with the hair on the outside’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday, March 5th 1912<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lunch. Regret to say going from bad to worse. We got a slant of wind yesterday afternoon, and going on 5 hours we converted our wretched morning run of 3 1\/2 miles into something over 9. We went to bed on a cup of cocoa and pemmican solid with the chill off. (R. 47.) The result is telling on all, but mainly on Oates, whose feet are in a wretched condition. One swelled up tremendously last night and he is very lame this morning. We started march on tea and pemmican as last night\u2014we pretend to prefer the pemmican this way. Marched for 5 hours this morning over a slightly better surface covered with high moundy sastrugi. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sledge capsized twice; we pulled on foot, covering about 5 1\/2 miles. We are two pony marches and 4 miles about from our depot. Our fuel dreadfully low and the poor Soldier nearly done. It is pathetic enough because we can do nothing for him; more hot food might do a little, but only a little, I fear. We none of us expected these terribly low temperatures, and of the rest of us Wilson is feeling them most; mainly, I fear, from his self-sacrificing devotion in doctoring Oates\u2019 feet. We cannot help each other, each has enough to do to take care of himself. We get cold on the march when the trudging is heavy, and the wind pierces our warm garments. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The others, all of them, are unendingly cheerful when in the tent. We mean to see the game through with a proper spirit, but it\u2019s tough work to be pulling harder than we ever pulled in our lives for long hours, and to feel that the progress is so slow. One can only say \u2018God help us!\u2019 and plod on our weary way, cold and very miserable, though outwardly cheerful. We talk of all sorts of subjects in the tent, not much of food now, since we decided to take the risk of running a full ration. We simply couldn\u2019t go hungry at this time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Scott’s Polar Institute Web Site<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemmican is made of tallow, dried meat and dried berries. It is a calorie rich food stuff created by native American groups and used by expedition like Scotts. The name says Wikipedia ‘comes from the Cree<\/a> word \u1431\u14a6\u1426\u1473\u14d0 (pim\u00eehk\u00e2n<\/em>), which and adopted is derived from the word \u1431\u14a5\u1540 (pim\u00ee<\/em>), ‘fat, grease”. Sastrugi is a Russian word which are ripples or craters in the surface of the snow caused by strong winds. They make progressing through the terrain much more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott begins his March 16th entry unsure what the actual date is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday March 16th <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lost track of dates, but think the last correct. Tragedy all along the line. At lunch, the day before yesterday, poor Titus Oates said he couldn\u2019t go on; he proposed we should leave him in his sleeping-bag. That we could not do, and induced him to come on, on the afternoon march. In spite of its awful nature for him he struggled on and we made a few miles. At night he was worse and we knew the end had come.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should this be found I want these facts recorded. Oates\u2019 last thoughts were of his Mother, but immediately before he took pride in thinking that his regiment would be pleased with the bold way in which he met his death. We can testify to his bravery. He has borne intense suffering for weeks without complaint, and to the very last was able and willing to discuss outside subjects. He did not \u2013 would not \u2013 give up hope to the very end. He was a brave soul. This was the end. He slept through the night before last, hoping not to wake; but he woke in the morning \u2013 yesterday. It was blowing a blizzard. He said, \u2018I am just going outside and may be some time.\u2019 He went out into the blizzard and we have not seen him since.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I take this opportunity of saying that we have stuck to our sick companions to the last. In case of Edgar Evans, when absolutely out of food and he lay insensible, the safety of the remainder seemed to demand his abandonment, but Providence mercifully removed him at this critical moment. He died a natural death, and we did not leave him till two hours after his death. We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman. We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirit, and assuredly the end is not far.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can only write at lunch and then only occasionally. The cold is intense, -40\u00ba at midday. My companions are unendingly cheerful, but we are all on the verge of serious frostbites, and though we constantly talk of fetching through I don\u2019t think anyone of us believes it in his heart.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are cold on the march now, and at all times except meals. Yesterday we had to lay up for a blizzard and to-day we move dreadfully slowly. We are at No. 14 pony camp, only two pony marches from One Ton Depot. We leave here our theodolite, a camera, and Oates\u2019 sleeping-bags. Diaries, &c., and geological specimens carried at Wilson\u2019s special request, will be found with us or on our sledge.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
From the display at Gilbert White’s House, in Selborne Hampshire, (Photo K Flude)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How much Oates story is tarnished by discoveries, published in 2002, that he fathered a child to a 12-year-old girl, I will leave to you to read here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more about Gilbert White’s House look at my post here<\/a>. To read about the original Titus Oates read my post titus-oakes-flogged-from-aldgate-to-newgate-may-20th-1685\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First published in 2024, revised 2025, On This Day added 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is about Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates and his self-sacrifice, on going out to his death to give the other members of the Antarctic Expedition a chance of survival. ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.\u2019 he famously said\u00a0. But first, for subscribers to the email, the new section ‘On This Day.’ … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lawrence Oates: ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.\u2019\u00a0 March 16th 1912”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[112,116,118,23,324,16,24,712,322,320],"tags":[1519,1517,1521,1523,1516,1518,1520],"class_list":["post-4739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-almanac-of-the-past","category-calendar","category-events","category-heritage","category-history","category-modern","category-museums","category-science","category-uk","category-world","tag-antarctic","tag-captain-scott","tag-gilbert-whites-house","tag-hampshire","tag-lawrence-oates","tag-polar-expedition-1912","tag-titus-oates"],"yoast_head":"\nLawrence Oates: 'I am just going outside and may be some time.\u2019\u00a0 March 16th 1912 - And Did Those Feet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lawrence Oates display at Gilbert White's House in Selborne. 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