Anne Fletcher on the Women Left Behind by Scott's Fatal Expedition

Speaking at next meeting of the Ealing branch of the Historical Association

Anne Fletcher (Right) with the cover of her book.

January 28, 2025

The next meeting of the Ealing Branch of the Historical Association features a talk by Anne Fletcher on her book ‘Widows of the Ice: The Women that Scott’s Antarctic Expedition Left Behind’.

As Captain Scott lay freezing and starving to death on his return journey from the South Pole, he wrote with a stub of pencil his final words, ‘For God’s sake look after our people.’

When the news came that the men were dead, they became heroes, their story filling column inches in newspapers across the world. Their widows were thrust into the limelight, forced to grieve in public view, keeping a stiff upper lip while the world praised their husbands’ sacrifice. Each experienced their loss differently, their treatment by the press and the public influenced by their class and contemporary notions of both manliness and womanly behaviour. Widows of the Ice is not the story of famous women but of forgotten wives, whose love and support helped to shape one of the most iconic moments in British history.

Anne Fletcher is an historian and writer. She has a career in heritage and has worked at historic sites such as Hampton Court Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Bletchley Park and Tower Bridge.

Of her book, Widows of the Ice, Dr Janina Ramirez wrote ‘This is the most mesmerising book…This is social history at its best!’

The meeting takes place on Tuesday 11 February from 7:30pm-9pm, at Ealing Green Church, W5 5QT.

All are welcome to attend . Members pay £15 per annum and for visitors a donation of £5 per talk is suggested with no payment expected from students.

Meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of each month at Ealing Green Church at 7.30pm, with the exception of the November meeting which takes place at Twyford School at 6.30pm. Talks are live events but with the speaker’s permission the association aims to make a recording available afterwards to those registering on Eventbrite (the booking link will be available on the society's website one month in advance of each talk).

Programme to June 2025

11 MarchEmeritus Professor James Manor, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, ‘The Debatable Resilience of Nehru's Liberal Democracy in India ‘

8 April Julia Boyd, author, ‘Off the beaten track: researching and writing social histories of the Third Reich'

13 May Professor Rebecca Earle, University of Warwick, ‘What can you learn from a cookbook (other than how to cook)?’

10 June Dr Ismini Pells, Oxford Department for Continuing Education, ‘Maimed Soldiers, War Widows and the Human Cost of the English Civil Wars: stories from the Civil War Petitions project’

For more details of the association’s programme of talks for the coming season visit its web site.