SCOTT 



5265 



SCOTT 



the head. General Scott is an ardent advocate 

 of the principle of universal military service. 

 In September, 1917, he reached the age limit 

 for retirement. 



SCOTT, SIR RICHARD WILLIAM (1825-1913), 

 a Canadian statesman, for half a century one 

 of the leaders of the Liberal party. He served 

 in the Ontario legislature, held office in the 

 Mackenzie and the Laurier ministries, and was 

 for thirty years the Liberal leader in the Do- 

 minion Senate. Sir Richard was born at Pres- 

 cott, Ont., and was educated by a private tu- 

 tor. Called to the Ontario bar in 1848, he soon 

 became a leader in the profession at Ottawa. 

 In 1852 he was elected mayor of that city and 

 from 1857 to 1867 sat in the old Canada as- 

 sembly. After Confederation he was elected to 

 the first Ontario assembly, in which he sat for 

 six years, being speaker in 1871. From 1872 to 

 1874 he was commissioner of crown lands for 

 Ontario in the Blake administration. 



When Alexander Mackenzie in 1874 formed 

 his Dominion Cabinet, he included Scott as 

 Secretary of State and Registrar-General. In 

 the same year the Earl of Dufferin called Scott 

 to the Senate, in which he spent the balance 

 of his political life. In 1878, when the Lib- 

 erals were defeated, Scott became leader of the 

 Liberals'in the Senate, a position which he did 

 not relinquish until 1908, when he retired from 

 public life. During the last twelve years of 

 that period, 1896-1908, he was again Secretary 

 of State, in the Laurier Ministry. Scott in 1878 

 carried through Parliament a Dominion Local 

 Option law, generally known as the Scott Act 

 or Scott Temperance Act. He was knighted in 

 1909. 



SCOTT, ROBERT FALCON (1868-1912), a noted 

 English explorer, who lost his life on the re- 

 turn journey from the South Pole, which he 

 had set out to discover, but which had been 

 reached a month earlier by Roald Amundsen. 

 He was born at Outlands, Devonport, was edu- 

 cated at Stubbington House, Fareham, and in 

 1882 entered the navy. In 1889 he attained 

 the rank of lieutenant, and in 1900 was made 

 commander. In this latter year he undertook 

 his first Antarctic expedition, and on returning, 

 in 1904, was showered with honors. The rank 

 of captain was conferred upon him, and in 1909 

 that of naval assistant to the second sea lord 

 of the admiralty. 



He had become absorbed in plans for Ant- 

 arctic discovery, and in 1909 resigned from the 

 navy and fitted out another expedition. Late 

 in 1910 Scott sailed in the Terra Nova from 

 330 



New Zealand and reached the foot of Mount 

 Erebus, where he had determined to set up 

 his headquarters. During the summer of 1911 

 he established supply stations along his pro- 

 posed route to- 

 ward the Pole, 

 and in November 

 started with 

 sledges over the 

 ice. For part of 

 the journey snow- 

 storms and bad 

 sledging made ad- 

 vance slow and 

 difficult, but the 

 party kept on, 

 and as they 

 neared their goal ROBERT F SCOTT 



His name will always be 

 conditions grew associated with the history of 



more favorable. south polar ex P loration - 

 On January 18, 1912 they reached the Pole, 

 only to find that Amundsen had been before 

 them in the discovery. Setting out on their 

 return journey, the whole party of five died 

 from privation and exposure. The Terra Nova, 

 sent out in 1912 to bring the explorers home, 

 carried back instead the tragic news. 



The bodies, together with records and diaries 

 kept by members of the party, were found in 

 the tent which had been erected as their last 

 camping place, and Scott's' diary, written up 

 to the day of his death, gave what he consid- 

 ered the causes of the disaster, and closed with 

 an appeal to the public to provide for the 

 families of himself and his companions. It 

 was an appealing account of a tragedy which 

 shocked the whole world. Near the place where 

 he died a memorial has been erected. 



Consult Scott's Last Expedition, written from 

 his own records. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Amundsen, Roald Ross, James Clark 



Polar Exploration, sub- Shackleton, Sir Ernest 



title Antarctic Henry 



Exploration 



SCOTT, SIR WALTER (1771-1832), Scotch nov- 

 elist and poet, born at Edinburgh, August 15, 

 1771. His father was a lawyer, a man with little 

 of the adventurous spirit which distinguished 

 the son ; but among the ancestors gf the family 

 on both sides were border chieftains, tales of 

 whose bold raids and marauding expeditions 

 still lived in the countryside. Young Walter 

 Scott never tired of hearing these accounts 

 indeed every one with whom he came in contact 



