A Brit a Day [#713]

Today's Brit is another hero from the centenary of South Pole exploration.  Another member of the team that died with Scott in late March 1912, Edward Adrian Wilson was a self-taught artist, a physician, and head scientist and zoologist of the expedition.  Wilson led the infamous 130-mile Winter Journey from the base camp to the breeding grounds of the Emperor penguin in the complete dark and terrifying cold of the Antarctic winter.  The Holy Grail he sought was a freshly laid egg of an Emperor penguin, hypothesized to hold evidence of the missing evolutionary link between reptiles and birds.  As seen above, Wilson would sketch in sub-zero temperatures by day and transform his notes and sketches into full watercolor paintings in the warmth of the group hut by evening.