Scott expedition survivor's kit for sale

SKIS and maps belonging to one of the survivors of Captain Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition are being sold at auction.

The collection belonged to Sir Charles Seymour Wright, who was the last surviving member of the expedition when he died in 1975.

Robert Falcon Scott, or Scott of the Antarctic as he became known, reached the South Pole on 17 January, 1912, after an epic journey - only to discover Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had got there first.

Wright was a member of the search party that found the frozen bodies of Scott and two companions in a tent on the ice in November 1912. Short of supplies and suffering from starvation and hypothermia, they were 11 miles from a fuel and food dump when they died.

The collection includes manuscripts, sledging kit and photographs of the fatal journey. It is expected to make as much as 250,000 when it goes under the hammer on 22 September at Christie's in London.

Wright's grandson, Adrian Raeside, said: "Although modest about his accomplishments, and reluctant to speak publicly about his time in the Antarctic, his family was privy to many stories from that expedition; his constant hunger, boots that literally fell apart as they marched across the Ice Barrier, the struggle to get into frozen sleeping bags."