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Welcome to the new William Lashly website!
On the day the National Antarctic Expedition left England on the Discovery in August 1901, William Lashly started to keep a daily diary about his journey. For this expedition he wrote his notes in a large account book. Later, on the Terra Nova expedition, when his record keeping was more selective, he made use of a much smaller maroon Navigating Officer’s Notebook which had a penholder attached and elastic securing strap.
Commander Ellis, after editing William’s diaries for publication in 1969, comments, “no item of interest was allowed to pass without being faithfully recorded.” In his Introduction to the book, Sir Vivian Fuchs writes, “In spite of the laconic style of Lashly’s writings one gains a sense of his imperturbability in the face of every situation”.
A glance at a few pages of the original diaries (now kept at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge) reveals a simple but clear hand and a direct style, reporting quite factually the weather and the events of the day. It is not surprising, given the very basic nature of William’s education, that his writing is not without grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. William was particularly conservative with the use of full stops and capital letters! Apsley Cherry-Garrard explains in the obituary of William he wrote for The Polar Record in 1940 how, when quoting from William’s diaries in his own book on the Antarctic, one of his greatest difficulties was preventing the printing compositor from altering Lashly’s spelling.
Although William's diaries may not demonstrate the sophistication or deep reflection of the accounts written by Captain Scott or Antarctic artist Edward Wilson, nor the literary flair of scientist Apsley Cherry-Garrard, they do provide a valuable alternative narrative to the often introspective or very self-conscious accounts presented by many of the expeditions’ leaders.
The significance of William’s diaries lies partly in the fact that they are written by one of the “men” rather than an officer or scientist. But the Terra Nova diary is also particularly important because it provides valuable information about the polar journey and the experiences of the final support party. He was one of the few in the final group of eight men before Captain Scott set off on the last leg with Captain Oates, Taffy Evans, Edward Wilson and Birdie Bowers, who kept a regular general diary. Taffy Evans did not keep a diary. Edward Wilson’s focused on medical issues and Birdie Bowers’ was full at first but his notes became more fragmentary. Captain Oates kept a diary which was later destroyed on the instructions of his mother.
Next : The Discovery Diary
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