Edward Adrian Wilson



Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson ("Uncle Bill") (July 23, 1872 – March 29, 1912) was a notable English polar explorer, physician, naturalist, painter and ornithologist.

His statue is on the Promenade in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and there is a small standing exhibition commemorating him in the town's museum.

Early life
Born in Montpellier Terrace, Cheltenham on 23 July 1872. He spent much of his youth at the Crippetts farm near Cheltenham. Wilson attended Cheltenham College and went from there to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he read zoology before qualifying in medicine at St George's Hospital Medical School, London. Shortly after he qualified as a doctor, Wilson became ill with tuberculosis from his mission work in London slums. It was during the long convalescence from this illness that he practiced and developed his skills as an artist.

Antarctica
Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica. The first was from 1901 to 1904 under Robert Falcon Scott on the Discovery Expedition, with Wilson acting as Junior Surgeon and Zoologist. During this expedition, Wilson joined Scott and Shackleton in a journey that, at the time, had been the southern-most trek achieved by any explorer. (He was then asked by Ernest Shackleton to join his expedition to Antarctica in 1907, but declined.)

Terra Nova Expedition
In 1910 Wilson set sail on the Terra Nova, again under Scott, as Chief of the Scientific Staff. In the winter of 1911 he led "The Winter Journey", a journey with Henry Robertson Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard, to Cape Crozier to collect Emperor penguin embryos. Cherry-Garrard later described this expedition in his memoir, The Worst Journey in the World.

He was one of the party of five men that reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, only to find the pole had been claimed by Amundsen just one month before. All five died during the return journey which created a national mourning the like of which has rarely been seen since.

By all accounts, Wilson was probably Scott's closest comrade of the expedition. When Scott's final camp was discovered by a search team led by Cherry-Garrard a year after the fateful return from the pole, Bowers and Wilson were found frozen in their sleeping bags. Scott's bag was open and his body partially out of his bag - his left arm was extended around Wilson.

At Gonville and Caius College the college's flag which Wilson took to the South Pole is preserved.

Honors
The Edward Wilson primary school in Paddington, London is named after him.

The student cafe, Eddie Wilson's, at St George's Medical School (SGUL) is named after Edward Wilson, who was a distinguished student of the medical school.